


Spideymote

by thatoneguy655



Category: Spider-Man (Comicverse), 私がモテないのはどう考えてもお前らが悪い! | Watamote - No Matter How I Look At It It's You Guys' Fault I'm Unpopular!
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crossover, F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:28:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27865373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatoneguy655/pseuds/thatoneguy655
Summary: Tomoko Kuroki, now in college, has found herself longing for more in her now mundane life. When she hears that her university is running a foreign exchange program, she signs up for it without even thinking. This one decision would change everything. Most importantly she would meet Peter Parker, AKA The Amazing Spider-Man! Is it possible for these two weirdos to get along?
Relationships: Peter Parker/Kuroki Tomoko
Kudos: 5





	1. Because I'm Not Popular, I'll Move In

It was a busy Saturday for Peter Parker. He had spent the entire morning cleaning up his messy apartment. He started at 9 in the morning and he was still finishing up around noon. He had better hurry! He had a new roommate scheduled to come in at any minute now and he wouldn't want to make a bad first impression.

Who was this new roommate? A foreign exchange student all the way from Japan. Empire State University offered Peter the chance to take this new student in. Seeing as how he was one of ESU's brightest students, who better to show the new girl around? Peter simply couldn't say no! Though, it certainly helped that Empire State University was offering to foot half the bill on his apartment's rent. Seeing as how his former roommate, Harry Osborn, was currently in the mental institution, Peter could use some extra money wherever he could get it.

Still, it's not like he was just doing this just so he could keep a roof over his head. He was also excited to just have a new roommate. Things were getting lonely. As previous stated, Harry Osborn was currently institutionalized and then there was Gwen. Peter still didn't like to think about her. It had been quite a few months since her tragic passing. While he had mostly recovered in that time, the feelings for her still lingered in the back of his mind.

Perhaps making a new friend would be what he needed to move on from his recent tragedies. While he still had Flash and Mary Jane, he would like to meet someone outside of his usual circle. It doesn't get much more outside of your usual circle than someone from a foreign country.

He paused his cleaning to lean on the arm of a nearby loveseat and thought about how his new roommate might be. Her name was apparently Tomoko Kuroki. He heard that she was a bit of a social outcast. Not exactly a loner, but not quite with the in-crowd either. If so, she was likely to be a bit of a wallflower. In that case, Peter would need to be extra cautious in trying to make her feel comfortable.

As Peter awaited her arrival, Tomoko was just making her way to the apartment complex. To be in a new city in a new country was quite the overwhelming experience, to put it lightly. She hadn't felt this nervous since her first year of high school. She wasn't even sure why she signed up for that stupid foreign exchange program. Just another ill thought out idea, she supposed.

She was really kicking herself for it now, though. What did she think was going to happen? That this was going to be like an anime where she moves into a new, foreign place and her life instantly becomes more exciting? Well, yes, that actually is what she thought would happen.

It seemed like a good idea on paper, at least to her. She could come across as the mysterious and exotic foreign student. Everyone would find her interesting simply because she came from a different country. However, this wouldn't be the case. The chauffeur who drove her here from the airport sure didn't seem to care one way or the other. The entire car ride was incredibly uncomfortable. Neither of them spoke a word to each other.

Even worse, Tomoko thought she had LONG since kicked the habit of coming up with these deranged schemes with the intent becoming more popular. She found a comfortable niche amongst some great friends. Unfortunately, the temptation of signing up for this program was all too tempting. What was the worst that could happen? What were the odds that they'd choose her above anybody else who probably signed up for it? As it turns out, the odds were very much in her favor. Or stacked against her, depending on how you looked at it.

Tomoko then paused her aimless pacing while thinking and realized...she forgot the apartment number! She ran her hands through her hair and felt like screaming. Instead she just grumbled angrily to herself while kicking a nearby wall. Then she picked up her foot while hopping around in pain. She paused, took a deep breath, and recomposed herself.

She still couldn't remember the apartment number. She groaned while hanging her head. However, she did remember what she heard about her future roommate. His name was Peter Parker and he was one of the top students in almost all of his classes. Normally, Tomoko might've been intimidated by having to room up with a guy but this Parker guy sounded like a real nerd. Realistically, she'd have no interest in him and he'd have no interest in her. But, who knows? Her natural charm might win him over. Yeah, as if.

As Tomoko struggled to remember the apartment number, Peter was beginning to get worried over what might have happened to her. She was supposed have shown up by now. Then again, Peter is no stranger to running late so he wasn't really upset about. Still, it's unlikely that her excuse for being late was similar to his. But, what if this exchange student just so happened to be a superhero just like him? It's incredibly unlikely it's certainly possible.

That's when he remembered that he was, indeed, Spider-Man. He hadn't really considered his alter ego when accepting ESU's offer. Harry Osborn managed to find out Peter was Spider-Man due to him carelessly leaving his costume in a place that Harry could easily access. He'd have to be more careful this time. He wouldn't want to impose too many restrictions and come off as too forceful, but at the same time he wouldn't want to get this poor girl wrapped up in his costumed affairs too.

As he realized the complications being Spider-Man would bring to this situation, he sighed expectantly. He checked his watch. It was 12:32. She was half an hour late. Now he was getting really concerned. He was almost ready to try to go out and find her but he realized he'd have no idea what she'd look like at all so it'd be pointless. All he could do was wait.

Finally, Tomoko finally remembered she had the number written down just in case this would happen. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a piece of paper with the number written down. She pumped her fist in victory and made her way to the elevator. The damned thing was out of order.

Tomoko growled angrily as she hunched over in rage. It seemed like NOTHING was going right today. She shouldn't have signed up for this stupid program anyway, but she did. Now she was here for a whole year, at least.

Well, seeing as how the elevator wasn't working, she would have to walk up the stairs. When she made her way to the stairway and saw all those flights of stairs, she groaned again. It was time to start walking. Tomoko trudged up each step with wearily. Each time she felt like she was making progress, she looked back up and realized there was still so much ground for her to cover.

It took what felt like an eternity, but she finally made it to the floor she was supposed to be on. She leaned onto the rail of the stairs while breathing heavily. She grumbled incoherently to herself and then continued down the hall.

Once again, Peter checked his watch. It was 12:46. At this point, he was ready to rush out and find her. Even if he realistically wouldn't find anybody. That's when he heard a quiet knock at the door.

_"Finally!"_ he thought to himself. Peter ran from the loveseat to the door. Peter stumbled in his rush and nearly fell over. He caught himself on the door, creating a loud SLAM against it.

Tomoko, standing on the other side, cocked her head when she heard all the commotion going on from the other side. Then, when the door slammed, she flinched back while trying not to scream.

_"Is he killing someone back there?!"_ She thought while backing away. _"What if he's one of those vindictive nerds?! What if I'm his next target?!"_ Tomoko was working herself up into a stupor until she took a moment to reconsider. While certainly possible, that wasn't a likely scenario. _"Tch, if he were killing someone, I would have heard the screams by now."_

Instead, her thoughts turned to something lewder. She furrowed her brows as she thought, _"What if he's getting laid in there? The nerve! He has someone coming over and he's trying to get some before she gets here!"_ The very thought made her seethe. _"If I see some bitch walking out of there, I'm really gonna lose it!"_

Peter was still struggling to maintain standing, as he fumbled around the doornob with his hand in the hopes it'd be able to prop himself back up. After a couple seconds, he managed to regain his footing. When he did, he slapped his own face. _"Oh boy! Nice one, Parker! There goes my chances of making a good first impression! At least I can say that a sense of balance definitely isn't something I gained from that spider bite."_

After much delay, the door finally opened. Tomoko prepared herself for the worst. This was her first good look at her new roommate for the next year. What she got wasn't what she at all expected. While she thought she'd be rooming up with a rail thin nerd with big round glasses, what she saw wasn't that at all. The man standing before her had soft, yet still handsome features. Nice looking hair, while also being very well dressed in a stylish brown jacket. Then there were his piercing hazel eyes, that had an almost welcoming quality to them. He wasn't too tall, but he wasn't too short either.

Tomoko froze while intensely blushing with a wry smile on her face, unable to even utter a word. Despite three years of high school and one year of college, she still really hadn't had much interaction with boys. She meekly turned her gaze to the floor while turning the tip of her foot side to side.

As she tried to stammer out a single word, these words were constantly repeating in her head, _"He's hot he's hot he's hot he's hot he's hot."_

Peter, meanwhile, wasn't quite expecting Tomoko to look like this either. He tried not to set expectations but he couldn't help himself. First of all, she was fairly short. Not that Peter was very tall, but even he had a good few inches on her. Not to mention, she had a very small frame for her age. Then there was her hair, which was very messy and covered one of her eyes. Speaking of which, most striking of all were her big green eyes with bags under them. Peter did a subtle double take upon seeing her for the first time while also remarking in his head, _"She's pretty funny looking. Almost cute, in a way."_

After a small period of awkward silence, Peter finally spoke up. "Kuroki Tomoko, I presume?"

Great, not only did he LOOK handsome, he also had a nice sounding voice. This was going to be a very difficult year, that's for sure. Tomoko finally managed to get a word out. Quietly, she simply replied with, "Hot..."

After realizing what she said, she began to panic internally. Did she really botch it so soon? Peter didn't quite catch what she said and simply assumed she just said, 'Hi.' He smiled and greeted her back, "Hey!"

He stepped away from the door and reached his arm inward to the main room of the apartment. "Don't just stand there, come in!"

Tomoko meekly sauntered inside, her anxiety spiking up intensely. Peter could sense her nervousness so he offered his hand out while asking, "Your bags, miss?" Tomoko handed him the bag on her back alongside the suitcase she was carrying while shaking. Peter then realized that he had nowhere to put these. Not wanting to look like a jerk, he went off into another room. Now that she had some time to be alone again, Tomoko plopped down on a nearby chair and sank into it. She tried to relax but it was hard.

She folded her hands together while thinking, _"This is bad. This is really bad. Why did I sign up for this foreign exchange program?! I was doing so well back at Aoyuma. Well, maybe not 'well' but I at least I was still around some of the people I knew in high school and also Yuu. Now? I'm basically in Hell."_

Peter took this time alone in the other room to think on his new roommate, _"Brotherrrrrrrr! I heard she was shy but I didn't think she'd be quite this anxious. I don't think I've ever met somebody who was this nervous. Then again, I probably left an awful impression. I had better go back in there."_

Peter walked back out from the room, still holding the bags.

"Uhhhh," he awkwardly began, "I don't have anywhere to put these. Sorry?"

Tomoko simply nodded while mindlessly staring into space. Peter placed them on the floor and sat on the loveseat directly across the chair as he searched for what to say.

"You must be pretty nervous right now," he finally spoke. "Moving to a new country and bunking up with a guy you've never met before in his shoddy apartment. It's pretty tough, I imagine."

Tomoko didn't say anything in reply. Instead she just thought, _"He's just stating the obvious now. Almost like he's mocking me about it. Stop taking pity on me!"_

Peter tugged his collar at her rather cold response. "Tough crowd..."

Tomoko rolled her eyes at that little quip. _"Well, I can say right now he's definitely not funny."_

Peter furrowed his brows and started scowling in reaction to how unresponsive she was. Peter was trying to reach out to the girl and here she was just brushing him off. He sighed and bluntly said, "Okay, here's the deal. We got off to a bad start. I'm sorry about that but giving me the cold shoulder isn't going to help either of us. We're gonna be together for the next year so we had better get used to each other."

Peter giving her a stern lecture actually made Tomoko turn towards him with her eyes wide open. She still didn't say anything but it's clear this change in tone caught her off guard.

"Alright, now that I've got your attention, let's start again. I'm Peter Parker. I'll be your guide for the next year."

_"He's explaining this to me like I already don't know this. Like some kind of RPG character."_ Tomoko thought while going back to ignoring him.

Peter clasped his hands together, hunched over, and took a deep breath in. This was going to be MUCH harder than he bargained for. He stood up from the loveseat and walked over to her. He leaned over her while placing his hand just above her shoulder on the back of the couch.

Tomoko looked up, at first worried but then...excited. She bit her lip with wry grin as she thought, _"Is finally this going to be it?! So soon too?! I don't know if I'm ready for this! At the same time? I'm always been ready for this!"_

Peter was ready to give her a stern talking to, but her unusual behavior just caused him to lose track of what he was going to say. He backed away and took a minute to rethink what he was going to say. In a major misunderstanding, he then thought that her grinning was a sign that she was intentionally screwing with him.

Tomoko's eyes bugged out as he did so. _"Huh?! Why did he back off?! Did I do anything? Did getting a close look at my face scare him? Do I smell? Did I just blow my chance?!"_

Peter turned back to her with a serious expression on his face and finally began to speak, "I don't know what your deal is, lady, but I've been trying to make this work and so far? It's not going so well. You haven't even spoken since you got here and you're just leering at me now! It almost feels you're intentionally trying to make me angry!"

Tomoko's grin shifted to a nervous expression as she thought, _"Huh?! Where'd he get that impression from?"_

She just replied, "S-sorry..." while burying her face in her hands.

Peter paused when he noticed how genuinely skittish she had become while wrapping his hand around his forehead. While he still wasn't sure what that was about, it was clear by now that she wasn't intentionally trying to mess with him.

_"Smooth moves, bonehead. Classic hothead Parker."_

He sat back in his seat and calmed down. "Look, I'm sorry," he said. "I can't believe I made this already bad situation even worse, but I did. Which is just about typical for me, really. Anyway, I still really want to make this work. I'm sure you're a nice girl and I'd like to get to know you better. Let's put this behind us, okay?"

Tomoko turned back to him once again, this time with a slight smile forming on her face. She still couldn't bring herself to speak up but she nodded once.

"Alright, good. I'll leave you alone for now and let you settle in."

With that settled, Peter could finally slouch back and relax. This new girl was definitely intriguing, to put it lightly. Peter didn't think he could meet someone who was somehow even more of an oddball than him, but Tomoko definitely has him beat in that department. One thing was for certain. This next year would be very interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How's this for a weird concept? I doubt there's a significant overlap between Watamote fans and Spider-Man fans but for the like, three of you outside of me that exist, this is something you'll hopefully like.
> 
> Way waaaaaaayyyy back in the day, I wrote a fanfiction with a similar concept to this one. Roughly around 2013 or so, I believe? It wasn't good. I have long since deleted the story and don't have it archived at all. But I remember some details. In particular, I remember I made both Peter and Tomoko young adults fresh out of college rather than having them in college. Their first meeting was really contrived because of that. It still probably comes across as forced here, but at least there's a tangible reason Tomoko's here.
> 
> In terms of continuity, this will MOSTLY be pulling from the main 616 Marvel universe for Spidey stuff. As stated in the story, this is sometime after Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn's deaths. I will mostly try to keep within that timeframe but there are things from later on in the timeline I will be pulling from. Such as Venom. Venom will definitely be making an appearance. So for all you Marvel continuity sticklers who just so happen to also be Watamote fans, I'm sorry.
> 
> Joking aside, I really do hope you like this story. I have a lot of fun writing it. Tomoko and Peter have such weird chemistry, it's just so much fun to play around it. There will be more to come, thanks for reading.


	2. Because Shocker's Not Popular, He Steals

A few hours had passed since Tomoko first arrived. She and Peter hadn't spoke at all. They didn't interact beyond passing glances whenever one was getting up to do something. So far, having a new roommate wasn't as eventful as either of them thought it would be.

Suddenly, Peter shot up from his seat. Tomoko quickly turned towards him and gave him an expectant look. While she didn't say a word, it was still very clear that she was wondering what the commotion was all about.

Peter scratched the back of his neck. He wanted to go out and patrol the city as Spider-Man, but it's not like he could just tell her that. So, Peter just said, "Wow, uhhhh I am really hungry. Think I might uhhh, go pick something up. Y'know. From a fast food place. Like, WcDonald's. Yeah, yeah, WcDonald's sounds good. You want me to bring you back anything?"

Tomoko cocked her eyebrow while making an unsure expression with her mouth.

 _"And I thought I was bad at bullshitting my way out of things."_ Tomoko thought to herself.

"I-I would like a j-just a h-hamburger." She answered while turning completely away from him and tightly gripping the armrests of the seat she was sitting on. This was most she had ever spoken to Peter the whole day and it was over fast food. This was incredibly embarrassing. She hadn't stuttered this badly in years but now it was like she was back in her first year of high school.

Peter shot a thumbs up at her, alongside a wink, "One hamburger to go! You got it!" After that he...ran into his room and shut the door. Tomoko's mouth was left slightly ajar as she tilted her head in sheer confusion. "Huh?" She quietly murmured.

She then heard a slam on the other side, almost as if it were a window opening. Tomoko stood up from her seat and slowly approached the door. It wasn't even shut. When she gently pushed it open, there was nobody there. The only proof that anybody was in that room was that the window was open.

 _"What kind of insane person exits through a window? How do you even exit through a window?!"_ She then imagined various scenarios of her trying to get out through the window. The first one she thought of involved her simply jumping out. This fantasy ended about as well as you'd expect. She then envisioned herself carefully crawling out from the window and then hanging off the ledge. She tries to parkour her way off of it and onto another building. She only ends up falling to the ground flat on her face. The next fantasy goes the same as the last until she was hanging off the ledge. She tries using her grip to crawl down the wall carefull but ends up slipping and falling on her back.

She sighed to herself and thought, _"I can't even imagine myself making it out through the window..."_

Just to be certain Peter didn't meet the same fate she did in those fantasies, she looked out the window and down into the alleyway below. Thankfully, there was no dead person down on the ground. Tomoko gave a sigh of relief, and then shut the window. It was letting a breeze in and she didn't like it.

She then took this time to look around the room. She didn't go digging into anything, she was just observing.

_"For someone who dresses so nice and looks so nice, and has such nice hair, his room is a complete mess. I mean, I'm no neat freak or anything but even I'm shocked at how messy this place is!"_

She knelt down and picked something up that was lying on the floor. A sick little smirk formed on her face as she did. It was a comic book. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to be exact.

 _"A comic book?"_ She smugly thought to herself. _"He's more of a loser than I originally thought. As if that isn't enough, it's such a childish one too. Not to mention, dated. When's the last time these characters were popular? Three decades ago?"_

She shook her head dismissively. However, she decided to take a quick peek at it out of simple curiosity. It was rather disorienting at first. Thanks to manga, Tomoko was so used to reading from right to left.

_"These American comics are formatted so terribly. How can anyone read this drivel?!"_

One thing that struck her as odd, however, is that the comic was all in black and white. While something that was regular in manga, Tomoko knew at LEAST enough about American comics to know that this wasn't the norm. The art, as a whole, was also grittier than anything she had previous seen.

_"I can't even tell any of them apart! They all look the same! What idiot thought to design them like this while still keeping the book colorless?"_

Despite her many criticisms, Tomoko kept reading. Things got serious when she actually saw one of them stab another person. Complete with graphic blood spilling out. Her eyes went wide.

_"Whoa! He actually killed a guy? I didn't think they did that!"_

Walking back out from Peter's room, Tomoko was still reading the comic. She couldn't even lie to herself at this point, she was pretty invested. After reading a lot of the same stuff over and over again, it was actually pretty refreshing to read something different.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man was just about ready to wrap up his patrol. Things seemed pretty peaceful. Getting out of the apartment for awhile and just swinging around was the stress relief he needed. He was still taking in that he'd be partnered with this girl for one whole year.

Not that he disliked her, but he definitely was still getting used to her very strange behavior. He couldn't get a read on her at all. Still, he had to be understanding. After all, back in high school Peter wasn't exactly the most popular or understood kid. He knew what it was like. All he could do was hope that her temper wasn't as bad as his was at the time. If so, then they might really be butting heads soon enough.

As he swung around, it looked like nothing was going to happen. For the city that never sleeps, it sure looked like crime was currently sleeping. Which was certain a relief on Peter's part. This meant he could wrap this up soon and head to WcDonald's.

He swung towards a tall building and landed ontop of it. He tore through a ball of web that was stuck to a nearby wall and pulled out a backpack. His civilian clothes were in here, so he'd simply change and then head out.

Of course, it's only when he got the idea in his head that he was ready to stop at WcDonald's that something finally decided to happen.

His Spider-Sense went off just before he heard a massive explosion going off in the distance. He groaned, "Yep. Right on time."

He set down the bag, webbed it back to the wall, and then leapt off the building he was standing atop of. Then he swung towards the smoke rising in the distance. When he arrived at his destination, he could see that it was a bank with dozens of people running out of it. He swung in through the window and made his way to the back. This wasn't the first time this bank had been robbed, so he already knew this is exactly where the vault was. Usually, the villains targeted the vault. They're predictable like that.

When Spidey arrived at the vault, he stuck his camera to the wall so he could get some good shots for JJ. Suddenly, his Spider-Sense went off again. Rising out from the smoke and debris was the Shocker. He was carrying two large burlap sacks, no doubt loaded to the brim with as much money as they could possibly carry. Shocker cracked his neck as his eyes narrowed.

Spider-Man simply shrugged him off, "The Shocker? Here I thought it was gonna be someone who might actually pose a threat!"

"Watch yourself, webslinger!" Shocker warned while aiming his gauntlets directly at his head. "I don't want want to kill you, but I will if I have to!"

"Aww you're almost cute when you try to appear threatening, Herman."

"Don't call me that!" Shocker demanded while slamming his fist in the air. "If I knew yer real name, you wouldn't want me callin' you by it when you're in-costume, would you?!"

Spidey shook his head. "Oh, definitely not. I wouldn't want to be called my real name when I'm dressed like this, let alone if I were dressed like my grandma's couch."

Shocker grew even more frustrated at Spidey's ceaseless quipping. He tried calming himself down since he knew Spider-Man was trying to make him mad. Getting mad would mean he was less focused. Being less focused would lead to his defeat. So, rather than get angry or even try to fight, Shocker just bolted towards the exit. To Spidey's surprise, he was fast! Especially for someone in a quilted costume, carrying two larges bags of money, while also lugging around two heavy gauntlets.

"You been running the treadmill in prison or something, Shocker?" Spidey asked as he gave chase.

Shocker answered, "Yes, actually! Nearly everyday! It's certainly paid off, wouldn't you say?"

Spider-Man tried tripping Shocker up by shooting webs at his feet, but Shocker narrowly avoided it by jumping over the webs. Without skipping a beat, he continued forward in his escape attempt. He even turned back and laughed just to really rub it in. Exasperated, Spidey thought to himself, _"This is what I get for underestimating him. I often forget Herman is actually pretty clever and tough when he wants to be."_

Spider-Man shot two webs down on the ground and pulled back. Using the two strands of web as a makeshift slingshot, he shot himself forward at a blistering speed. Shocker, in a rather unexpected move, threw one of the bags of cash at the incoming Spidey. It didn't do much, but it did provide Shocker both a free hand and a distraction. He shot out a blast out at Spidey while he was distracted. Thanks to his Spider-Sense, Spider-Man just narrowly avoided the blast by shooting a web up at the ceiling and pulling himself up. He shot out two more strands of web at the ground and used them to redirect himself at Shocker.

Finally, he tackled Shocker. Shocker let go of the other bag of money as both went flying out from bank's other window. They then crashed onto the pavement outside. Before Spidey got off of him, Shocker managed to surprise him with a suckerpunch straight to the eye followed by a quick, low impact blast to the wallcrawler's face. Spider-Man was sent flying into a nearby car. Shocker then decided to run away, realizing that he'd rather escape with no money than go to prison also without money. Sure, he managed to escape but at least he didn't take any of the cash with him so it was still technically a victory.

Spidey was still reeling from the impact. After a few minutes, he finally fully regained consciousness. He found himself surrounded by metal. It was a good thing Shocker didn't have the time to charge up a full blast or else Peter really would have been in trouble. He pulled himself out from the wreckage. He saw that he had made a massive indent in the shape of himself in what remained of that totaled car. He wearily held his head while also stumbling around now that he was back on his feet.

After a few seconds, his sense of balance returned. He went back into the bank to retrieve his camera, ran back out, and he then swung away to the nearest WcDonald's. Normally, Peter might've changed back to his street clothes but that fight left him so tired and humiliated, he just decided to walk in still dressed in his Spider-Man costume.

While standing in line, a heavy set man with a thick mustache and dark skin dressed in a construction worker's uniform asked, "Are you the real Spider-Man?"

"The one and only." Peter confirmed.

The man smiled and laughed, "Okay, this is going to sound weird, but can I take your picture? My kid's a big fan."

Spidey smiled under his mask and nodded, "Sure! No problem! Actually, hold on." Spidey then ran off to the bathroom. When he walked back out, he was wearing a mask that didn't have a left shattered lens and tears throughout it. It's a good thing Peter always thought to bring a spare. With that out of the way, he posed with the man for a picture. The man pulled out a camera and snapped it. A polaroid image then came out the slot on the bottom.

 _"Wow, people still use polaroids?"_ He thought to himself.

"You got a pen?" Spidey asked the man.

The man searched patted himself down for one but then shook his head, "'Fraid not."

A young woman dressed in a WcDonald's uniform, with blonde hair and light skin then walked up to them both and said, "I've got one! But, I'll only let you use it if you also take a picture with me."

Spider-Man shrugged, "Eh? Why not?" He took a picture with her too. After that, he signed both of their pictures, 'Courtesy, your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man." They both thanked him and he waved them off. He then continued to the front counter to get his order in.

Back at the apartment, Tomoko had moved to laying on the loveseat. She had finished reading the comic sometime ago and was now browsing her phone. She suddenly got a text message. It was from Yuu.

"hello! mokocchi! ^_^" The message read. Strangely enough, it was typed up in English.

Tomoko quickly replied with, "Why are you texting me in English, Yuu-Chan?"

"practice make perfect. u r in America and need all help with it yes?"

Tomoko snorted at her friend's imperfect English. While Tomoko wasn't all that exceptional in most of her classes, she was actually pretty adept at picking up on a foreign language.

"That's not necessary."

"ok!" Yuu responded. "anyway, how is your trip going? are you having fun?"

"No." Tomoko answered bluntly.

"oh." Yuu sent back. That was then followed up with, "why not?"

"I'm boarded up in this shoddy apartment with this really hot guy. Can't talk to him. Can't talk to anybody. This sucks, Yuu-chan."

"oh? mokocchi! do you have a picture of him?"

Tomoko barely put in any effort in getting up from the loveseat. Instead, she rolled onto the floor with a loud thud. She didn't even get back up as she just crawled around on the floor. Seeing as how he wasn't around to take a picture of, she had to find a picture of him somewhere. It didn't take long for her to find a framed picture of him lying on a nearby stand. It was of Peter smiling with his hand placed behind the head of another man with two of his fingers raised. Tomoko took a close look at the other man in the picture. Particularly, the top his head.

 _"What the hell!?"_ She thought to herself. _"I didn't think hair could do that!"_

The other guy's hair looked oddly wavy. At least, she thought it was wavy? It was in some odd pattern. It almost looked like sideways cornrows. Even weirder, it came to the front with a MASSIVE widow's peak. She stared at it for another few seconds with a particularly baffled look on her face. _"This can't be real."_

Still, it was the only photo she had. So, she snapped a pic of it. She sent the picture to Yuu-chan alongside with a message that said, "The one on the left."

"him? the one with the weird hair?"

Tomoko gripped her phone in a panic as she hastily sent a message that clarified, "RIGHT. RIGHT. I MEANT RIGHT."

"ohhh!" Yuu responded. "yeah! he is cute! mokocchi you have a whole year with him. make the most of it!~"

Tomoko's face turned a bright, crimson red at the mere suggestion. She began shaking while texting back, "Do you actually think I have a chance?"

Within a less than a second Yuu responded with a very encouraging message, "YES! i have faith in you, mokocchi!"

Suddenly, Tomoko heard the doorknob turning. She sent a message back, "He just got back with some food. Talk to you later, Yuu-Chan."

Tomoko put her phone away. She couldn't believe it took him this long to get food. Not that she was hungry, but she thought he'd be back before it was night at least.

Peter walked in and saw her lying on the floor. She rolled over to look back at him with a vacant, half-lidded stare. Peter looked down at her with a worn out look in his eyes. He gave a lone blink as his sole reaction to this. He then beamed an incredibly cheesy grin at her. "Hi honey, I'm home." He jokingly said with a heavy tiredness to his voice.

Tomoko picked herself up from the floor and took a closer look at his face. She normally struggled to make eye contact with him, but she couldn't look away from all the scrapes and bruises all across his face. She raised her hand at all the damage as she shyly asked, "Wh-wha-what happen?"

Peter motioned to his face with his hands and said, "Oh these? These? I just, uhhh, fell down a flight of steps on my way back is all. It's not a big deal."

Tomoko didn't believe him for a second but didn't bother to confront him on it. Instead, she thought that he actually DID hit the ground when he went out the window and was too embarrassed to tell the truth about it.

Quickly, he changed the subject by raising the bag of fast food and saying, "Look what I've got." He sat down the bag down on the coffee table in the center of the living room. It was a humble, round table but it got the job done. He sat down on the floor and motioned for her to sit directly opposite of him on the other said. Tomoko nervously looked down at him while tugging at her collar.

Again, he beckoned to her, "Come here! I don't bite!" It took a lot of willpower on her end, but Tomoko obliged and sat down with her legs crossed. She was quivering in her shoes while down. Peter placed his hand on her arm and smiled warmly, "Hey. There's no reason to be nervous around me."

As if her face couldn't get any redder. She pulled her arm off the table and turned her head away. Peter handed Tomoko her hamburger. He also unwrapped it and then dumped some of his fries on the wrapper, "I got a large fry so we could split it. I know you didn't ask but...what's a burger without some fries to go alongside it?"

"Th-thanks." She said while picking up the burger. She took one bite and...it was very lukewarm. Not cold, but it wasn't hot either. Still, it was pretty edible. It was nice that WcDonald's in the states was just about the same as it was back home. At least one thing remained consistent in her life. She then ate one lone fry. Now THAT was cold.

 _"Cold fries..."_ She thought to herself, _"is there anything worse? I hear they serve cold fries in prison as a form of torture."_

Peter ate a handful of fries and then shook his head, "Ahh! They've gone cold! Sheesh. Sorry about that."

Tomoko repeatedly rubbed her hands together in an anxious manner as she replied, "It's...fine."

Peter bit into his double cheeseburger and spoke while his mouth was still full, "You know, you're ver-ry interesting, Ms. Kuroki."

Tomoko stopped eating to glare at him as her mouth stretched out across her face in a way that clearly signaled she was rather irritated by that remark. _"What's he mean by that?! And what's with him talking with his mouth full?! Ick! Don't you have any manners?! It's not that hard, just wait until you're done chewing and then speak! Whatever you have to say probably isn't that important."_

Peter caught her staring at him and he further clarified while raising his hands defensively, "Don't misinterpret! I mean that in a good way. I'd really like to get to know you more."

Tomoko was in the middle of chewing when she heard that. The sheer unexpectedness of that comment made her prematurely swallow her food and start coughing uncontrollably.

Peter crawled on all fours over to her. He slapped her on the back and as soon as he did, she coughed up the bit of burger on the floor. She turned back to him with a blank yet still clearly panicked look upon her face. After a solid five seconds of taking in what had just happened, she then buried her face in her hands while incoherently blubbering and mentally screaming. Peter could hear a few sorries mixed in her babbling, alongside many words he couldn't at all understand.

"Hey! Hey! Take it easy, huh? This is nothing to be embarrassed over. I'm just glad you're not hurt."

She looked back at him on the verge of tears. Trying to hold back her tears in an effort to appear as if she was alright, she replied, "Y-you're ver-r-rr-ry interesting too, P-Parker-san." All with a very strained smile on her face.

Peter laughed, "Hey! You finally said my name! But, you can just call me Peter. Or Pete, if you prefer."

She sniffled as her strained smile turned to a genuine one. "O-ok Peter. Y-you can j-just call me..." she paused while while taking a deep breath. After exhaling, she continued, "...T-Tomoko."

"You got it, Tomoko." Before he forgot, he used his discarded WcDonald's wrapper to pick up the piece of hamburger still on the floor. He then tossed it into the fast food bag. Wordlessly, they both finished their respective meals minutes later. Peter was hungry enough to also eat the fries cold without even popping them in the microwave.

Peter stood up, stretched, and then yawned, "Well, I'm feelin' pretty tired. Bet you are too. Think it's fair to say we both had a very exhausting day."

Before leaving, he moved the coffee table, took the cushions off the sofa, and unfolded a mattress. Tomoko looked down at the bed, fairly unimpressed with it.

_"Ehhhhh!? Are you for real? A couch bed?! Don't tell me he expects me to sleep there! I'm not a jilted husband who's wife told them to get out of the bed! I deserve more respect than this!"_

Peter threw down some pillows and a blanket on the mattress. He then gestured down to the sofa bed and said, "This is where you'll be sleeping." She looked back up at him with her mouth slightly agape. Peter sighed, "Don't look at me like that. This place only has like, four rooms. Though, it's more like three considering how small the bathroom and kitchen are. I know it's not much to look at, but it's surprisingly comfortable."

"If it's so comfortable, why don't you sleep in it?"Tomoko bitterly grumbled to herself in Japanese. Probably a little louder than she should have since Peter actually heard her.

"Because I have a bed." Peter answered with a smirk forming on his face. Tomoko was taken aback by his response.

"H-how did you kn-know what I said?" She asked.

Peter laughed again, "I didn't! I just took a lucky guess and assumed you said something like that." Again, he yawned. Although, this time it was an obviously exaggerated and fake yawn. He made his way towards his bedroom as he called out, "Goodnight, Tomoko!"

Tomoko clenched her fist as she thought, _"Unfunny bastard...!"_ However, the more she thought on it, the more she realized that...yeah. Yeah, it was actually pretty funny. She laid down in the bed and chuckled quietly while looking back on it.

To he surprise, he was right about it being very comfortable. As she laid in bed, she thought back to what Yuu said to her. Yuu was a fairly promiscuous woman, at least in Tomoko's mind, so she seemed pretty knowledgeable on what men wanted. So, maybe, Peter could want her? It was an tantalizing possibility. Tomoko didn't want to get her hopes up but what if?

He wasn't funny (until he was), he was somewhat of a slob, and he seemingly had strange habits like diving out windows rather than using the door. Still, he had his own charm. Tomoko wasn't sure if she'd follow through on what Yuu suggested, but she'd sleep on it. She wrapped herself up in her blanket, turned on her side, and fell asleep. For the first time since this began, she was excited for what the next day brought...


	3. Because I'm Not Popular, The Lizard Attacks!

The next day, Peter would show Tomoko around campus. Oddly enough, all of the scrapes and bruises Peter had received the previous day had just about been patched up. Tomoko made a mental note of this but, once again, didn't think to confront him on it. She just assumed that he was a fast healer.

Empire State was quite the sizeable university. A fair bit bigger than Aoyama Gakuin University, that's for sure. So this was quite a long tour. It didn't help that Peter enthusiastically spoke about EVERY class at length. He talked a few minutes at each stop. At least they were closing in on their final stop.

 _"I didn't think it was this possible for someone to BE this enthusiastic about classes."_ Tomoko wearily thought to herself while resisting every urge to outwardly whine.

Finally, Peter stopped at the final room. "And This is Dr. Curt Connors' class!" He explained. "He's a biochemistry Professor. One of the most brilliant men I've ever had the honor of meeting. Did you know that he's an award winning scientist? Hard to believe he's working here. One of his most famous experiments..."

Tomoko was just drowning him out at this point. For someone so cute, Peter was a HUGE nerd. _"If something exciting doesn't happen soon, I'm going to strangle him and then myself."_

She looked around expectantly after that thought, as Peter still droned on and on about whatever. " _Damn."_ She thought. _"If this were an anime or a manga, something exciting would have happened after I thought that."_

"...I still think Connors should have won that year's Nobel Prize but it's hard to deny that Michael Morbius' research earned it." Peter finally finished. He turned back to her with and said, "Welp, that's Empire State University! I hope you enjoyed the tour."

She responded by saying, "I-it was g-g-good." She delivered it with the most fake smile imaginable. Peter could tell that she was faking it so he stroked his chin while thinking, _"Maybe I overexplained."_

Suddenly, Peter's Spider-Sense went off. He dove into Tomoko and knocked them both onto the floor. Flying out through the doorway to Connors' class was his desk. Tomoko screamed in terror. Peter stood back up, grabbed her by the hand, and started running. She didn't even get a chance to get off the floor, so she was being dragged along it.

_"He doesn't even have the courtesy to pick me up! This is scraping my ankles! What are we even running from?!"_

When she looked back, she saw what appeared to be a hunched over giant lizard in a labcoat skulking out from the classroom. She couldn't believe her eyes.

 _"Giant lizard?! Either I'm in a dream or his lectures really did drive me insane!"_ She half-jokingly thought to herself. Outwardly, Tomoko was still screaming for dear life.

Peter finally stopped when they were just outside of the University gates. Tomoko looked up at him. "I uhhhh...I need to go get help!" He told her as he ran away again, this time without her.

Tomoko froze out of sheer shock. _"HE LEFT ME?! THAT COWARD! GET BACK HERE! I HOPE YOU TRIP ON A PUDDLE WHILE YOU RUN AND SNAP YOUR NECK, YOU RAT!"_

Tomoko tried pulling herself back up, but she was so wracked with fear and anger that she found herself stumbling back down to the ground with each attempt.

Peter, meanwhile, went down a nearby alleyway to change into his Spider-Man costume. "I hate to leave her like that." He muttered to himself. "But the sooner I can change into this costume, the sooner I can put a stop to the Lizard's rampage."

He was just about changed, all except for the mask. He slid the mask over his head as he said, "Still, I'm gonna have a hard time explaining this one to her!" With that said, he swung back towards the university.

When he returned, Tomoko was still struggling to pull herself back up. "Need some assistance, miss?" Spidey asked as he reached down to pull her back up.

Tomoko looked at him in pure confusion. "Who are y-you?" She questioned.

"You haven't heard of me? You must be new around here." Spider-Man boasted. "I'm your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man."

Before their conversation could continue, the Lizard burst out of the doors of University while screeching. Spider-Man pushed Tomoko behind him and said, "Get out of here! I'd hate to see a pretty young lady such as yourself get hurt!"

Upon that remark, Tomoko giggled to herself while blushing. After that, she didn't leave. Instead, she directed her gaze downward. Her eyes shot wide open upon seeing what she did.

 _"Wah-! How much trouble would I get into if I groped a superhero? It's like if I groped a cop. Probably even worse. He could punch all of my teeth out at once! Though, looking at it, it might be worth the risk..."_ Tomoko pondered to herself. She nearly risked it but decided to pocket her hand before she did something really stupid.

Spider-Man turned his head back slightly, noticing she still hadn't left. He saw her eyeing his backside and shooed her away, "Hey! You can keep staring but only if you think it's worth the risk of getting face-to-face with a lizard man!"

Spidey calling her out caused Tomoko to snap back to reality and realize that yes, there is a giant lizard approaching. It also crossed her mind how weird it was that the giant lizard was now PART of that reality she snapped back to. With that in mind, Tomoko started running.

With that taken care of, the wallcrawler leapt towards the Lizard and delivered a kick straight to his jaw. The monster stepped back while rubbing his chin.

"Sssspider-Man!" The Lizard hissed. "How I loathe ssssseeing you!"

"Here I thought you loved seeing me! Lizard, you wound me!" Spidey quipped as he went in for another punch.

The Lizard grabbed Spider-Man's fist. His massive, scaly hand completely overtook Spidey's small hand. He lifted Spider-Man up by the arm and held the wallcrawler above his gaping maw. Spider-Man shot glob of webbing down the Lizard's mouth. The Lizard let Spidey go as he tried tearing the thick, sticky substance out from his mouth.

Using this opening, Spider-Man kicked the Lizard in the throat. The monster collapsed down on the ground in pain. Since the Lizard was distracted, Spider-Man now had time to run back into the University. Why? He knew that Curt kept a serum around his classroom just in case he had mutated again.

It helped that he had a good idea of where it might be. When the Lizard threw that desk, he might have done so because he knew the antidote was in there. If that were the case, then it could be gone. Still, there was a chance that the syringe it was contained in survived the impact. He had to be quick, though. He could hear the Lizard bust through the doors to search for him.

Finally, he reached the hallway that the shattered desk was in. Standing at the other end of the hallway was the Lizard. Lizard snarled at him, "I knew you'd be coming here, Ssspider-Man! Predictable!"

Wordlessly, Spider-Man ran for the desk. At the very same time, the Lizard charged towards it on all fours like a rabid animal. While running towards the desk, Spider-Man ended up tripping on a puddle of spilled soda. Were it not for his Spider-Sense, he would have fell straight to the ground. Thankfully, he managed to reorient himself before he tumbled completely.

 _"Funny!"_ Peter thought to himself. _"I don't recall that being there before!"_

The two reached the desk at just about the same time. Lizard swiped his tail at Spidey in an attempt to get him to back off. Instead, Spider-Man leapt onto the ceiling to avoid it. He shot down a web to one of the planks of wood that once made up Connors' desk and yanked it up. The piece of wood hit the Lizard right in the face, causing him to redirect his attention to Spider-Man. Spidey threw the plank back at him. It hit the Lizard right on the back. He then called out to the reptilian beast, "Come here, lizard lips!"

Lizard snapped his mouth like an alligator at the webslinger. Lizard then dove at Spidey, who narrowly avoided it by crawling onto one of the walls. Lizard tried swiping at him but Spidey jumped back up onto the floor to avoid it. Finally, he shot out a web ball at Lizard's arm, sticking him to the wall. With the Lizard briefly preoccupied, Spidey began digging through the splintered remains of the desk. After a few seconds, he pulled out the syringe that contained Connors' antidote from the wreckage. Not a moment too soon either, as the Lizard tackled him and knocked them both onto the tile floor beneath them.

The Lizard wrapped his hands around Peter's throat as his mouth opened wide. He was getting ready to eat Spider-Man's head clean off. Luckily, Spider-Man jammed the needle into the Lizard's arm before he was choked out. The Lizard stumbled back while holding his head. He collapsed onto his knees as the scales in his skin started to vanish. His regrown arm vanished with them.

"Wh...what happened?" Connors asked. He then took notice to Spider-Man and realized exactly what had transpired. "Dear God, not again. I don't even understand how it happened this time! One second, I was packing up for the day and then the next? Everything went black."

"Have you been making any progress on a permanent solution, Doc?"

Connors shook his head, "I've tried just about everything I could think of. Nothing I've tried can purge it from my systems completely."

Spider-Man helped Connors' back to his feet as he said, "I would love to stick around, Doc, but I've gotta get going. I hope you find your cure one day."

Connors' watched him run out as he solemnly said, "So do I, Spider-Man. So do I."

In another part of the city, Tomoko had stopped running. She had long since escaped from the Lizard. Now she was just wandering the crowded streets of New York, alone. She was still thinking about how Peter had abandoned her. She didn't know whether she wanted to explode with rage or break down and cry over it.

The more she thought about it, the sadder it just made her. _"I probably would have left me behind too."_ She sorrowfully thought. Tomoko continued walking forward, not even paying attention to her surroundings. Unknown to her, she wandered directly into a crosswalk as a taxi was coming in fast.

Fortunately, someone had dived after her and got her out of the way. The taxi honked it's horn as it drove by as the driver screamed out at them. It definitely hurt being tackled onto the concrete sidewalk, but it was better than being hit by a car. She looked up at the person he saved her and it was Peter!

Peter smiled that same cheesy grin he often had as he said, "Funny how we're always running into each other like this."

She just turned her eyes away from him and shoved him off. She stood back up and started marching away without him. She tried appearing like an angry tsundere girl in an anime with her head turned up, her mouth puffed out, and her eyes shut. She just ended up looking completely ridiculous. Not helping her image was that she tripped on a slightly raised bit of concrete and nearly fell flat on her butt. Only nearly because Peter came running in and caught her in his arms.

"I know you're mad at what I did." Peter stated. "You have every right to be. But, I had to get some assistance from a...work associate. Maybe you saw him? Can't miss him if you did, he's a guy dressed in bright red and blue spandex."

Tomoko looked at him in shock, "Y-you know h-him?"

"I take his pictures for the Daily Bugle." Peter explained as he put her back down on her feet. "Daily Bugle's a newspaper, I should clarify. It's where I work."

"Heheh...wh-who still reads new-newspapers?"

Peter shrugged, "No idea! But I'm glad someone does, or else I'd be out of work."

The two of them walked quietly together until Peter interrupted the silence by saying, "Anyways, a little spider told me that you may've been looking a little too intently at his backside."

Tomoko started nervously running one of her hands through her hair as she responded, "Huh?! No! Absolutely not! I would never! Not once!"

"Relax! You're not the first person. And I doubt you'll be the last. Heck, for all I know, maybe he _was_ lying about it just to make you sound more interested in him than you really were."

"Wh-why would he d-d-do that?" Tomoko asked while quivering.

"Don't know." Peter answered. "He's a real mystery. Anyway, before we left the apartment, I saw you playing one of those handheld games. There's actually an arcade near here. Maybe we could stop by?"

Tomoko wordlessly nodded to the suggestion and they made their way to the arcade. It wasn't a big one, either. To Tomoko's surprise, it was actually a lot smaller than the one back home. Still, it had a decent selection of games. In particular, she was drawn to one game.

"They have Po Po Po'n?!" She blurted out.

Peter nodded, "Yeah. This place has quite a few Japanese imports. You're familiar with this one?"

"I-I errr...I might have s-some experience." She humbly bragged as she walked up to the machine.

Peter handed her a quarter, "That so? Show me what you've got."

Tomoko inserted the quarter and as soon as the game started, she entered a trance-like state. Her eyes were completely focused on the game as she mashed every button. Her hands were moving so fast, it was insane. Even more insane? Every button she hit was hit at the exact perfect time. Peter's eyebrows shot up and his eyes bugged out as he stared with his jaw hanging open.

When it was done, Tomoko had a perfect score. She was wheezing, her face was completely red from physical exhaustion, her back was completely bent over, and she was even coughing.

"You alright there?" Peter asked.

Tomoko looked back up at him as she replied while still heavily breathing, "Y-yeeeeaaah! Fine!"

Peter inserted a quarter of his own and said, "You're pretty good. But I'll bet I'm better."

"We'll see about that." Tomoko replied with a surprising amount of confidence. She then selected Endless Mode. Whoever fell below their opponent by 500 points would be the loser.

When the next game began, they both were slapping the colorful and large buttons rapidly. However, Peter found himself falling behind Tomoko. Not even his patented Spider-Reflexes could keep up with how good she was! It's like she spent hours and hours at getting good. Which, she probably did.

 _"Holyyyyyy-"_ he thought to himself, _"-she's completely destroying me! Come on, Parker! Let's go!"_ Peter picked up the pace. While he was definitely faster, he found himself making more errors now. Meanwhile, Tomoko hadn't faulted even once. While having a duel with the Lizard didn't help, Peter found himself shocked that he was getting tired already whereas she was still going without any signs that she was ready to stop.

Still, he trudged on! With enough work, he might cover the point gap between them yet. This went on for seconds. Eventually, seconds turned to minutes. They had been going at it for over 5 minutes at this point. Finally, Peter made one mistake too many and his score fell below Tomoko's score by 500 points. He too was now heaving now that it was over. Tomoko just completely tumbled backwards onto her back, directly onto the carpet.

Peter knelt down next to her and said, "Hey! You gotta stop doing this!"

Tomoko looked up to him and woozily replied, "Sticky..."

Peter knelt in closer as he slightly opened his mouth in a baffled fashion. "Excuse me, did you just say sticky?" He asked.

"This floor is st-sticky." She said while trying to pull herself back up. Unfortunately, her hair got caught on the substance. She got back up, but what felt like a massive clump of hair was claimed by the floor. It felt like half of her hair was missing! Her pupils shrank, her eyes went wide, she bit her bottom lip in a frustrated manner, and she began screaming internally. She looked SO cool at something for just a moment but then she had completely blown it! Why does this always happen?!

"What are you freaking out over?" Peter questioned.

Tomoko looked back down on the floor and saw that it actually wasn't that bad. While it felt like a huge chunk of hair was missing, Tomoko could see that it was actually only a few stray strands. It wasn't at all noticeable. She took deep breaths and calmed down again.

"S-sorry." She replied as she turned away from him.

Peter simply patted her on the back in a reassuring manner, "It's alright. Don't beat yourself up over it."

Tomoko gasped upon the surprising physical contact as a wry grin formed on her face.

"Let's go play something else." Peter suggested. "Bet I could kick your butt at Street Fighter."

The two of them ran off towards the machine. Peter then said as if to brag, "I met some of these guys once."

"Huh?" Tomoko responded, as if he were absolutely insane.

"Forget I said anything." Peter brushed off as he selected a character. He chose Blanka. Why? He just reminded Peter of the Hulk but with crazy hair. Nothing else really to it. Peter didn't actually play that much Street Fighter, if at all. So he didn't have a character he mained.

Tomoko chose Chun-Li. Tomoko didn't really play Street Fighter that much (or fighters in general) but whenever she did, she chose Chun-Li. Her specials felt easiest to input to Tomoko and she also had jiggle physics, which was certainly a nice bonus.

They both played TERRIBLY. It was clear they didn't have much experience at all. Still, they had fun. That was, until Tomoko kept beating Peter. Again. How was he losing so hard?! He was Spider-Man! He could beat up giant lizards, mad robots, and even aliens! Yet, he was getting his butt kicked! If Tomoko only knew she was getting a leg up on an actual superhero.

After enough defeats, Peter actually let out an angry grunt.

Tomoko turned to him with an incredibly smug simper on her face. "Are you getting mad at video games?" She sarcastically asked while chuckling.

Peter looked back to her with a smirk forming on his face, "Is that sarcasm I detect, Ms. Kuroki? I didn't think you could be so bold."

Tomoko froze. He was right. That WAS uncharacteristically sarcastic of her. At least, it was uncharacteristic of her to be so openly snarky around him. She had been acting so reserved around Peter up until this point. She didn't even stutter when she said that. Not once.

Now that he had an opening, Peter struck the final blow. He had FINALLY won a match. He triumphantly cheered while pumping his fist, "Yeah! Got one!"

After that, he VERY lightly punched Tomoko on the arm, "I'd like to see more of that from you."

Tomoko simply responded by rubbing the shoulder he punched while giggling uncontrollably. Peter handed her the keys to the apartment, "Here, you can go home. I gotta stop by the Daily Bugle and drop some pics off for the boss. Trust me, you don't want to meet him."

Tomoko merely nodded just before she joyfully ran off. It made Peter really happy to see her look so genuinely upbeat.

 _"It might have taken a day or two, but it looks like we're definitely making some real progress. She's definitely growing on me. Maybe more than I'd like to admit."_ Peter thought to himself. He then walked out of the arcade with his arms folded behind his back. He had a chipper pep to his step. Which was particularly unusual since he didn't usually feel that way when he had to stop by the Bugle. Not even ol' Jolly Jonah could break his stride.

Tomoko made her way back to the apartment, still overwhelmed by the events of the day. Not only was she talking with a cute guy without much issue at all, she was actually joking around and playing games with him.

 _"Peter might be a huge loser, but that's okay. So am I. I'm beginning to thing Yuu-chan might be right."_ Tomoko thought to herself. _"I still doubt he'd go out with someone like me but...maybe it's worth a shot?"_

While the first time she went up the apartment stairway with anxious dread, now she was going up them with joyous confidence. What once felt like an eternity, didn't feel like it took very long at all. Sure, the day began with him going on about boring lectures and with the both of them being attacked by a giant lizard but they both made it out okay. She even got to get up close with a superhero.

She unlocked the door to her and Peter's apartment. The lights were off, so she couldn't really see. Despite that, something felt off. The room felt cold, as if the window had been opened. When she turned on the light, she saw someone sitting on the sofa with one of his legs crossed. He was in a very relaxed position.

The man stood up with the most uncomfortable grin imaginable. He had a stubble on his face and a short blonde flattop. He was a mountain of pure muscle dressed in black clothes. As if Tomoko didn't feel short enough, she felt positively tiny in this man's presence. It was fair to say he was the biggest person she had ever met in her life. Another notable feature were his large, bushy eyebrows. It was like he had two black caterpillars living on his forehead.

"Hi." The man spoke. With that one little word, it was already clear he spoke with a thick Brooklyn accent.

Tomoko backed against the wall while freaking out, "Wh-wh-who a-are y-y-you?"

"My name's Eddie Brock." The man introduced himself, with his insincere smile only widening. "I'm a friend of Peter Parker's." Every word he spoke was laced with both a mix of sarcasm and barely layered aggression.

Eddie slowly approached her as he asked, "Do you know where he is?"

"H-he's a-at the errr...pla-place he works. Hehehh, I f-f-forgot the n-name al-already." Tomoko nervously answered while slowly inching back towards the door.

Eddie hung his head with an exaggerated frown, "That so, huh? I guess we'll have to wait for him, then."


	4. Because Venom's Not Popular, He Stalks

Peter was now walking home from the Bugle. Jameson had actually paid $500 for his latest set of pictures. Considering Jonah normally only paid him about $300? This was very good. Unfortunately, Jameson only paid that much because the pics Peter sold him were of Spider-Man getting utterly wrecked by the Shocker of all people. There were few things JJJ was really happy to see, but seeing Spider-Man getting pummeled was one of them. Peter could see the headline now...

MASKED MENACE ATTEMPTS TO ROB BANK; IS STOPPED BY OTHER, MORE PATHETIC CRIMINAL

Oh well, at least he made an extra $200 from his humiliation so there WAS an upside to this situation. He continued down the crowded street thinking how well the day had gone overall. Sure, it involved a Lizard attack but hey. It just wouldn't be a regular day if SOME villain hadn't interrupted. If it had to be anybody, the Lizard wasn't the worst villain to have pop up. Ram a needle into him and he's gone for a couple weeks from here on out. He might even be gone for months.

At least it wasn't Doctor Octopus or god forbid, Venom. So, he couldn't complain. Not too much, anyway. He arrived at the apartment complex and walked in the door. Almost instaneously, his landlady, Ms. Muggins, came up to him. She didn't say anything, but it was clear what she wanted. Yep, it was that time of the month. Time to pay rent. She wasn't alone either. Her boyfriend, Mr. Ditkovich, was standing right beside her.

"Where's my rent, Parker?" Muggins asked in a gravelly voice as she got uncomfortably close to Peter while also pointing up to him. Muggins was an unusual looking woman. She had shoulder length gray hair cut into a bob, a thick frame, and a stern wrinkled face with large, crazy looking eyes. Peter backed away with a worried expression on his face.

Mr. Ditkovich held his arm out in front of her and gently pushed her back. "Relax, Maimie." He spoke in a thick Ukranian accent. Ditkovich was a comparatively thin man with thinning, blonde hair. He was usually the more rational of the two but he could still be rather pushy about rent. He held his hand out in front of Peter and said, "Your school sent the check for half of the rent. Now we need other half."

Peter reached into his jacket pocket and placed the money in Ditkovich's hand. After that, he walked off as Mr. Ditkovich and Ms. Muggins celebrated actually getting their full rent on-time for once.

Making his way up the stairs, he reflected on the day gone by. While it was a good day, he couldn't wait to get home. Nothing quite like ending a good day by getting some much needed rest.

 _"Ahh, it's good to be home."_ He thought to himself as he opened the door to the apartment. _"I can just sit back and relax."_

But, that wasn't going to happen. When that door opened all the way, he saw Eddie Brock chilling on the sofa watching the television. Sitting in the chair across from him was Tomoko, playing one of her games on a handheld system.

Peter slammed the door behind him as he growled, "Brock! What are you doing here?!"

Eddie stood up with a smile, "Well, well, well! Look who decided to finally come home! We missed ya, Parker!"

Peter ran over to Tomoko, pulled her headphones off, grabbed her by the shoulders, and asked, "Did he do anything to you?! Are you okay?!"

"Wh- hey! Y-yeah! I'm f-f-fine!" She replied with a confused look on her face.

Peter scowled and turned back to Eddie. Eddie had such a large grin on his face.

"She better not be lying." Peter sternly said as he began approaching Eddie.

Eddie chuckled, "I would never do anything to hurt one of your friends, Parker. Though, I'll admit I'm surprised. She doesn't seem to be in on your secret."

Tomoko perked up upon hearing about a 'secret.'

Peter's scowl had shifted into a full-on teeth gritting grimace as he got incredibly close to Brock, "You leave her out of this! She doesn't need to know what's going on between us!"

"Oh, I think she has every right to know! After all, roomies don't keep secrets!" Brock replied as he bumped his chest into Peter's.

Peter stood on the tips of his toes to get onto Eddie's level as he said, "Don't do it!" The two of them were standing chest to chest, as close together as they possibly could be.

Tomoko looked at the display as she thought, _"Are they...a couple!?"_ She lewdly smirked at the mere thought of it, as sweat began to drop from her brow. Tomoko then said, "I...I know your secret." Peter and Eddie turned back to her as they both made shocked expressions.

"Y-you're both dating!" She yelled out.

Eddie heartily laughed whereas Parker held his head in his hands while groaning. He was relieved that she didn't actually know he was Spider-Man but this wasn't a great alternative. Eddie wrapped his arm around Peter while wiping the tears from his eyes, "I like this girl, Parker!"

Peter shoved Brock off of him as he clarified, "We most assuredly are NOT dating. I can tell you that right now. We aren't exes either, so don't even think about asking."

Brock confirmed it, "Definitely not."

Tomoko was a little disappointed that this wasn't true simply because, well, the mental image was pretty hot. At the same time, she felt a lot of relief since it meant she still had a shot with Peter. Either way, this was pretty embarrassing for all three of them. At least, embarrassing for Peter and Tomoko. Eddie seemed to find it incredibly funny.

"However-" Brock began, "Parker still has a secret. One he's not letting you in on."

"I don't, he's lying." Peter affirmed in a serious tone. "I don't know what he's told you, but he shouldn't even be in this apartment right now. We're not friends."

"That's no way to speak to a buddy, Parker." Eddie said while feigning sadness.

Peter couldn't take anymore. His eyebrows furrowed and he growled angrily. Without any hesitation, he rammed his fist directly into Eddie's jaw. Eddie was sent flying across the room, crashing into a nearby wooden stand. He stood back while rubbing his chin, "Not bad."

From what Tomoko could tell, it seemed like the relationship between Eddie Brock and Peter Parker was similar to her relationship with Komi-something. However, Tomoko never once actually hit Komiyama. Even if she really wanted to sometimes. To actually see Peter act so aggressive almost kinda scared Tomoko. For the two days she had known him, he seemed fairly easy going. He had a mild temper but he didn't seem to type to actually strike somebody. Especially not with such strength. That punch managed to send someone as big as Eddie Brock across the room. How strong WAS Peter?

"Holy crap!" She exclaimed under her breath.

Peter rolled up his sleeves as he marched towards Brock, "I've had enough of you, Eddie. Get out. Or I'll make you get out."

Eddie smarmily smile, "I can tell when I'm not wanted." He raised his hands up to his chest, slightly nodded, and sauntered backwards to the door. He never once broke eye contact with Peter as he left. Peter crossed his arms, his snarling sneer now back to just an upset scowl.

Suddenly, there was a loud knocking on the door. Peter opened it, expecting Eddie again. It was instead Ms. Muggins. She shook her fist at him, "Keep it down with the rough housing, Parker! Elya is playing poker with his friends and your loud noises are breaking his concentration! Your rambunctiousness is actually losing us money!"

Peter stiffly stood straight as he saluted with a strained smile, "Yes ma'am! It won't happen again!"

"It had better not." Ms. Muggins crankily replied as she blew a puff of smoke in his face. Peter shut his eyes and resisted every urge to cough as she did. With that done, she slammed the door in his face and left. Peter didn't even flinch.

With that settled, Peter could finally sit down on the sofa. As he plopped down on it, he sighed, began to frown, and looked at the now broken wooden stand. That was something that was going to need replacing. The wall also seemed to be cracked from Eddie's impact. The wall also seemed to be cracked where Eddie had impacted it. Just another thing Ms. Muggins was going to complain about needing to fix while never actually getting the repairs done.

 _"At least it'll go great with all the other cracks in the wall."_ Peter sarcastically thought to himself as he reclined back in his seat and slouched onto the arm of the chair.

Tomoko looked up from her game and she could see that Peter's mood had visibly shifted. No longer was he angry, now he was just sad. Peter tried his best to remain upbeat, especially now that he had a guest, but sometimes that mask shatters. Eddie Brock knew just how to get under Peter's skin. To remind him that, in spite of it all, he was still Spider-Man. And Spider-Man was always going to interfere in his personal life.

Tomoko took her headphones off, placed her game system down, stood up from her seat, and meekly approached the sofa. She anxiously rubbed her hands together while taking deep breaths. After she properly prepared herself, she sat down next to him with her hands in her lap. It wasn't much, but after all Peter had done for her? She had to do something for him in his time of need. Maybe this would help.

Peter turned his head to her with a very subtle smile. His eyes still expressed a tired sorrow, but his mood had improved at least a little. "Tomoko?" He quietly said.

"I...uhhh I uhhhh I-" Tomoko stammered while trying to say something. "A-are you okay?"

Peter chuckled to himself as his smile widened, "Not really."

"What h-happened between you and h-him?" She asked, looking away from Peter.

Peter thought back on it. The events that birthed Venom. It was less than a week after Gwen Stacy died. John Jameson's space shuttle was crashing. Something had caused John to pass out while onboard. It was heading directly towards the George Washington Bridge. Peter, as Spider-Man, swung in to stop it. He landed in the shuttle and managed to redirect it so it had instead crashed into the nearby water. Little did he know that a black, gooey alien substance had attached itself to him as he leapt out with John Jameson in-hand.

The alien substance seemed attracted to him due to the intense emotions he was still feeling at the time. Eventually, Peter would find out that this creature, which he dubbed a Symbiote, had attached to him. At first, it seemed like this Symbiote had no downsides. It gave him a striking black and white costume, it enhanced his strength, and it naturally was able to produce webs. However, the negatives began to pop up a couple weeks in, as he noticed he was becoming incredibly tired. He found himself waking up with bruises and scratches all over. The Symbiote was taking his body for joyrides late at night.

That was troublesome enough, but the alien suit also seemed to actively encourage more intense emotions. He was slowly driving his friends away. He and Mary Jane were actually beginning to date around this time. Unfortunately, the symbiote caused him to lash out at her and it strained their relationship. The final straw came when he fought Harry Osborn, the second Green Goblin. The symbiote encouraged the negative emotions Peter still felt over the first Green Goblin, Norman Osborn. With such raw anger manifesting within him, he ended up nearly beating Harry into a coma. He beat Harry so bad, he gave his best friend amnesia. The amnesia was so intense, it landed Harry in an institution where was still recovering.

Peter knew he had to get rid of the Symbiote. In their time together, Peter had noticed the Symbiote seemed to hesitate around loud noises. So, he went to the loudest place he could think of. Well, the loudest place that also happened to be nearby. A church tower. He went to the top of the church and managed to fight the alien monster off of him when the bells were ringing.

It was a new day. At least, so it seemed. The Symbiote survived and escaped to the bottom of the church. It was there that a man was praying. A man named Eddie Brock. Eddie had a score to settle with both Peter and Spider-Man. Peter had robbed him of his job at the Daily Bugle by always being there before Eddie could manage to. Eddie had the story of the lifetime when he found out that Curtis Connors was the Lizard but Spider-Man interfered and destroyed the evidence that Brock had. That one event sparked Eddie being fired by Jameson after countless failures, him getting evicted from his apartment, his wife divorcing him, and his already unloving father finally denouncing him.

He was praying for salvation, seeing as how he was considering suicide. That salvation came when the Symbiote attached to him. Together, they became one. They were now Venom. When Eddie learned that Peter and Spider-Man were one and the same? He knew his new direction in life. He would relentlessly pursue Peter. Both in his personal life and his superhero life. He would ruin Peter's life, just as he felt Peter ruined his. Eddie's stalking and gaslighting caused MJ to completely break it off of him. Something Peter was still very sore over.

Peter completely zoned out just thinking all of that out. He definitely couldn't tell Tomoko ANY of that. It would be both overwhelming to her and it would expose his secret identity as Spider-Man. What was he going to say? Tomoko silently sat there for minutes on end waiting for him to respond.

 _"Did I mindbreak him?"_ She pondered to herself. Finally, she grabbed his shoulder and shook him, hoping that might help him snap out of it.

Peter quickly returned to reality as he blurted out, "Huh- wh- oh! Right, right. What happened between Eddie and I is a long story. I don't want to talk about it."

Tomoko paused. A small scowl formed on her face, _"I ask him what's wrong and he doesn't even want to talk about it! I had to work up a lot of courage to even ask! And it was for nothing!? How ungrateful!"_

However, she then thought back on her first day here. Which wasn't hard, since it was only yesterday. She remembered that Peter stopped pressing her to talk about her feelings when she clearly didn't want to talk about it. With that in-mind, she calmed down and relented.

However, it seemed that Eddie was telling the truth about one thing. Peter definitely had something to hide. Peter having some kind of secret would explain a lot of his weirder behavior. Such as going out through windows, coming home with all kinds of bruises, the fast healing, punching a man across the room, and abandoning people when trouble suddenly appeared. That's when it clicked. Could it be that Peter Parker...was Spider-Man? That's a major assumption to make, though. Even with the evidence, it was all circumstantial. Nothing definitive.

Despite that, Tomoko started jumping to conclusions. _"Is my roommate a superhero?!"_ She thought to herself.

The idea of it was pretty worrying but at the same time? Quite exciting. It made her giddy just thinking about it. It was EXACTLY like some kind of anime. If she wasn't convinced about getting together with Peter before, now she KNEW she had to at least try. After all, how many people could say they've dated an actual superhero?

Now Tomoko was zoning out. Peter snapped his finger and said, "Hey!"

Tomoko jolted up as she gasped, "Huh?!"

"You started staring off into space." Peter said.

"W-was I?" Tomoko asked while she ran her hand through her hair.

"Yeah." Peter confirmed. "I got a question, though. Big, scary stranger you never met suddenly appears in the apartment. Why didn't you start running?"

"I-I was going t-to but he showed m-me the key you g-gave him." Tomoko explained. "I thought it m-m-meant that he actually w-was your friend. B-besides, i-if I started r-running he could have c-caught me e-easily."

Peter didn't give Eddie a key. Yet, it was easy to conclude that he used bit of the Symbiote to form one. It was a pretty solid way to fool someone into thinking you were a close friend. After all, you wouldn't give anyone a key to your home unless you really trusted them.

It felt like Peter was going to follow up more on that, but he didn't. Instead, he yawned. The yawn was accompanied with a slow blink. Tomoko was too nervous to really speak anymore at this point. So, they both peacefully sat together in silence. Whether it was to maintain the moment or because Peter was too tired to talk is hard to say. A couple minutes passed and Peter even leaned against Tomoko. Though, it seems like he was only half-conscious AT BEST when this happened so this likely didn't mean much

Tomoko began to nervously sweat and her heart began racing. To be so up close and personal with a guy? It was unusual. She giggled uncontrollably while considering what to do. She could just shove him off. That would be the easiest solution. It'd also be the worst solution since he probably wouldn't take too kindly to it.

Today was already a stressful day, what with the giant lizard attacks and being stuck in the middle of a brief altercation between two men who really hated each other. Would embracing this moment really be too much for her after all of that? Tomoko gulped as she ever so slowly nuzzled up against Peter's shoulder.

Doing just that frazzled her to her very core. Yet, she did not move. She wouldn't, no matter how stressed out it made her. Despite the fact she was shivering like crazy, it felt really nice. That was, until Peter snored and his hand shifted onto her thigh. This sudden, unexpected contact caused her to instinctively shove him off of her. Peter fell forward and slumped onto the floor.

Tomoko's entire body seized up as she realized what she had done. She COMPLETELY ruined the moment. This was incredibly embarrassing. Any moment now, Peter would get back up.

Except, he didn't. Tomoko breathed a sigh of relief as she heard him snore again. Now, she could relax. Except, she DID feel a little bad over leaving poor guy on the floor. She tried distracting herself from it by browsing her phone, but she accidentally glanced away from it and still saw him there.

 _"Well, I suppose he has been nice to me..."_ She reminded herself as she pulled herself off of the sofa. With that in-mind, she tried picking Peter up to carry him off to his bedroom. Unfortunately, she was nowhere near strong enough to lift him up. Even attempting to do so caused a lot of strain on her body. She moaned and backed off. One thing was for certain, he was heavier than he looked.

She rubbed her hands together to prepare herself to try again. Rather than picking him, she instead just dragged him across the floor. This was still pretty hard for someone as unathletic as Tomoko. Manageable, but difficult. Still, he would undoubtedly do the same for her. Along the way, she accidentally caused his head to bump into multiple objects.

 _"How can someone sleep like this?! I could be screaming in his ear and he still wouldn't wake up!"_ She thought as she finally made her way to his bedroom. There was a new problem, though. Peter's bed was elevated off of the floor, as most beds tend to be. Tomoko didn't think this through at all. She slapped her on face while making an open mouth scowl.

Unfortunately, her patience had run out by this point. She shrugged, sighed, and walked out of the bedroom while mumbling, "Good enough."

COMPLETELY exhausted, Tomoko grabbed her covers and pillows, unfolded the loveseat bed, fell down onto it, and fell asleep within minutes. That was two days down, many more left to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope nobody minds the exposition dump in the middle of this chapter. It's important to establish how Venom appeared much earlier than usual in-universe, while also explaining why Peter and MJ aren't going steady at this point in time.


	5. Because I'm Not Popular, I'll Get Together

Three days had passed since Eddie broke into the apartment. Things were fairly unremarkable in that time frame. Go to class, hang out together, talk with friends (whether it was over the phone in Tomoko's case, or in-person in Peter's case), hang out together, and stopping various criminals. Though, that last one only applied to a certain webslinger.

So what made this day so special? Today was the day Peter had invited two of his friends and his aunt to meet Tomoko. As one could imagine, Tomoko was absolutely not looking forward to this. While she had just about gotten used to being around Peter, she still was getting used to the culture shock that came with being in a new country. She hardly spoke to anyone beyond Peter or her teachers if they called on her. In some ways, she was disappointed that being the foreign exchange student didn't make her that much more remarkable to the other students. On the other hand, it did mean that she was able to avoid being sucked into any conversations.

Peter was all dressed up. While he already dressed pretty nice, he went all out tonight. An all black suit, a white dress shirt, and purple bow-tie made up his attire. Frankly, he was probably overdressed considering this was strictly a casual affair.

Tomoko, on the other hand, was simply dressed in a newsboy cap, a light blue long sleeved shirt made out of a thin material, and jeans. She looked at Peter adjusting bowtie while spitefully thinking, _"Is he trying to make me look bad or something?!"_

Peter had been fiddling around with that tie for the past few minutes. _"How is this thing not straight already?!"_ He angrily thought to himself while still trying to get it just right.

Tomoko blankly stared at him adjusting the tie with her bottom lip slightly hanging open. _"That thing was straight five minutes ago. What is he DOING?"_

Already, tonight was off to a bad start. Neither of them were prepared when the first knock at the door came. Peter redirected his attention to the door as he was STILL trying to fix his tie, "Oh shhhh-! You gotta be kidding me! Tomoko, could you get the door?"

Tomoko's eyes shot out at the very thought. She shook her head rapidly with a nervous look on her face. Peter sighed and made his way from the bathroom all the way to the door. When he opened it, who else but Flash Thompson was standing in the hallway.

"Hey Pete!" Flash enthusiastically said, beaming. His eyes directed down to Peter's tie as he pointed out, "Buddy, your tie is crooked."

Peter slumped his shoulders and nodded, "I know, Flash. I know."

Flash reached out his hands to help straighten it out. He tilted his head left and right as he tried to fix it. "Haha, wow. This thing REALLY doesn't want to go straight. Maybe you shoulda used a clip-on?"

"Use a clip-on? Are you for real? If I want to look cheap and stupid, sure." Peter sarcastically remarked.

Flash stopped, looked at him with a cocked eyebrow, and sternly said, "I use clip-ons all the time."

Peter smarmily smirked at him as he said. "That so? I should have known. A lunkhead like you wouldn't know how to tie a tie at all."

"For someone who claims to be a genius, you sure don't seem like you know how to tie one either." Flash retorted back instantly.

After a brief pause, the two men laughed. Peter stepped aside and motioned both of his arms to the inside of the apartment. "Welcome to Casa De Parker! Make yourself at home."

Flash strutted in, dressed in his varsity jacket, a black t-shirt with Spider-Man's face on it, and a pair of sunfaded jeans. Tomoko couldn't believe her eyes upon seeing him, _"He's friends with a jock?! How did that happen? Well, actually, considering some of the popular friends I made back home I suppose it's not ENTIRELY implausible..."_

Her thinking left her completely distracted when Flash sat down in the seat directly away from hers and he spoke to her, "Yo! You must be Parker's new roommate."

Tomoko was caught offguard by this. She looked at him for less than a second and then turned away. "Y-yes." She skittishly answered.

"I'm Flash Thompson. Once Midtown High's star quarterback, now Empire State University's." Flash bragged with a big grin on his face.

_"No need to rub it in our faces."_ Tomoko derisively thought. She looked down at the shirt he was wearing with a perplexed expression, _"Is that...?"_

Flash could see her staring. He pointed at the Spidey head on his chest as he asked, "Oh, this? Yeah, it's Spider-Man. I'm sure you've heard of him. You simply HAD to have! He's only like, the greatest guy ever. Selflessly going out to fight criminals and save lives in a world that doesn't appreciate you? It's inspiring. I'll have you know, I'm actually the president of his fanclub."

_"Being president of his fanclub? Psh, that's nothing compared to being his roommate. Get on my level."_ Tomoko thought with a smug little smirk forming on her face, still COMPLETELY convinced that Peter was Spider-Man.

Flash took notice of the smirk and asked, "What's that all about?"

Tomoko gulped as a bead of sweat dropped down her face. She had to quickly think of a cover story. She looked across the room and saw Peter back in the bathroom, still trying to fix his tie. "Um, i-it's just Peter. H-he's still...adjusting his tie." She answered while stifling her laughter. It was very rare that Tomoko's lying worked, but this seemed to do the trick.

Flash's head turned back to Peter and he could see she was right. He looked just in time to see Peter actually tear the bowtie off, throw it on the ground, and then stomp on it repeatedly while shouting expletives at it. Flash simply stared with a slightly amused, yet deadpan look on his face whereas Tomoko was actually giggling at it by this point.

Peter stormed out of the bathroom as he said, "I think the tie was defective."

"How can a bowtie be defective?" Flash rhetorically asked, now entirely bemused.

"Maybe it wasn't cut to the correct length or something. I think that was it." Peter struggled to explain.

Flash rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah. Okay, Mr. Science Whiz."

There was another knock at the door. Peter dashed to the door to open it. Now standing behind the door was dear old Aunt May, holding a wide and flat plastic container full of some kind of baked goods. She had a warm, closed mouth smile on her aged face as she gave a little wave to Peter, "Oh hello, Petey. I hope I'm not too late, dear."

"Hey now! Who's this pretty young lady?" Peter asked, beaming right back at her.

Aunt May waved her hand in a dismissive fashion at the compliment as she hobbled into the apartment, "Oh, pshaw."

Tomoko caught a glance at Aunt May and cocked her head in a bewildered fashion. _"He said something about having an aunt but...how old IS she?! She looks like she could be his grandma! When he talked about his aunt, I thought she'd be like a milf or something! Not an old crone!"_

Flash had gotten up from his seat to get something from the fridge. Aunt May unknowingly took his seat, setting the container on the coffee table. Flash walked back in with a soda and saw Aunt May took his chair. Which was really inconvenient since the other seats were either next to Tomoko or one of the wooden chairs Peter had to drag in, as he didn't have enough cushioned seating.

Flash groaned, which Aunt May took notice to. "Oh? Was this your seat, dearie?"

"Yeah," Flash answered, "but, you can keep it." He sat down in one of the plain, wooden chairs instead. He could have pushed her, but he didn't. After all, who would want to take a seat from an old lady?

Aunt May cheekily smirked as she replied, "Oh, I was never going to give you the seat. What is it they say? Oh, yes. You move, you lose."

Flash was shocked that such a kindly looking woman still had some kick in her yet. Peter came in and wrapped his arm around her back as he pridefully said, "That's my Aunt May!"

He motioned over to Tomoko and said, "Anyway, here's my new roommate I was telling you so much about."

"The clumsy one that falls over so much?" Aunt May asked, looking up to her beloved nephew.

Tomoko sneered at that remark as she thought, _"Huh?! I don't fall over that much! At least not as much as your boneheaded nephew who likes diving out windows!"_

Aunt May squinted at Tomoko, making sure to get a real good look at her. There was no question, Tomoko was certainly unique among Peter's friends. With her messy black hair, big green eyes, dark circles under them, pale skin, and small frame, Tomoko was unlike anybody Peter had ever made friends with before.

As Aunt May glared at her, Tomoko's eyes darted back and forth nervously. _"What's with the staredown? Can she read my mind?! DID SHE HEAR ME CALL HER NEPHEW A BONEHEAD AND HER AN OLD CRONE?! IF YOU CAN READ MY MIND, I'M SORRY. I DIDN'T MEAN IT!"_

Aunt May then smiled and offered out her hand, "I'm sorry if I scared you. I just wanted to get a good look at you and these eyes aren't what they used to be."

Tomoko glanced down at the hand, unsure of what she might have wanted. She hesitated for a second, before reaching out her own hand. Aunt May gave a welcoming nod. After some reservations, Tomoko shook the old lady's hand.

"I can see Peter wasn't kidding when he said you were shy. You don't need to be so nervous, honey." Aunt May commented. "In fact, you almost remind me of him when he was younger."

She reached into her purse and pulled out a billfold. After that, she dug through the billfold. After a few seconds of searching, she pulled out a photograph and handed it to Tomoko.

Tomoko looked at the photograph. It was of a skinny young man with brunette slicked back hair, round and thin rimmed glasses that almost completely hid his eyes, a white dress shirt, plain brown slacks, and a black sweater vest. Not helping his look, he had a rather gloomy expression his face. Tomoko stifled her laughter at the image, _"Heheheh, who could this loser be?"_

Tomoko then remembered Aunt May mentioning that she reminded May of Peter when he was younger. Could it be that this nebbish looking nerd was him? Tomoko's jaw dropped at the realization. She lowered the photo and looked at Peter. She then raised the photo back up. Then back down.

She repeated this process three more times before Peter confirmed it, "Hard to believe, isn't it?"

"It's not that hard to believe." Flash joked just before he took a big gulp of his drink.

Peter playfully slugged him in the shoulder, "Alright, funny guy."

Aunt May gasped, "Now, boys, there's no need for rough housing."

"We weren't even rough housing, Aunt May!" Peter said, trying to defend himself.

Flash concurred, "If it were rough housing, I'd have really given Peter what for."

"Just like in that boxing match back in high school, right?" Peter reminded him.

"That was a fluke!"

Aunt May interrupted the argument, "Enough with the fighting! You two are friends, act like it."

Tomoko looked across all three of them as she thought, _"And I thought I had some dysfunctional relationships."_

Aunt May turned her attention back to Tomoko, "How rude of me. I forgot to properly introduce myself. I'm May, Peter's aunt."

"T-Tomoko." Tomoko replied as she nervously lowered her head and crossed her legs.

Aunt May folded her hands in a delighted manner, "My nephew did say you had a cute voice."

Tomoko deeply inhaled as her head shot right back up upon that unexpected remark. Peter looked away why holding his hand over his face. He leaned over to Aunt May and whispered, "Let's not put the wrong idea into her head, Aunt May."

"I don't know what you mean, Peter." Aunt May plainly stated. It was uncertain whether she was being cheeky or genuinely just didn't know that Tomoko might take that a certain way.

Thankfully, to distract from this awkward moment, there was another knock at the door. Peter took this opportunity and went right towards the door, "That must be MJ!"

He opened the door and...it wasn't Mary Jane. Instead, it was a pizza delivery boy carrying three boxes of pizza. The pizza boy handed him the three pizzas and said, "That'll be $32.75 overall, sir."

Peter handed him $45 and said, "Keep the change." Peter always tipped the delivery person well. Even if he really didn't have the money to throw around, he once worked at Joe's Pizza and he sympathized with them. The pizza boy took the money, handed him the pizzas, and left without saying a word. That could be seen as rude, but again, Peter sympathized with him too much to feel stiffed over a lack of thanks.

Peter sauntered into the kitchen, placed the pizzas on the kitchen counter, and called out, "Pizza's here! Everybody come get some!" Without even a chance of respite, ANOTHER knock at the door was heard. Peter sighed and ran back to the door as everyone else got up to get some pizza.

When he opened the door, he saw Mary Jane. She was dressed in nothing more than a tight black dress. "Hey, Tiger." She greeted with a big grin on her face.

"MJ! Nice to see you've finally made it."

"That's rich coming from Mr. Always Fashionably Late himself." MJ snarkily retorted as she made her way inside. "In all honesty, Kingsley had me stay an extra hour in the studio. I would have been here sooner, but he was insistent that I stayed."

She strutted over to the sofa and took a seat. Peter shut the door and went back over to where the pizza was. He yelled out to her, "Hey! Do you want a slice pizza?"

"Just one, please!" Mary Jane insisted. "I think Kingsley would kill me if I even gained a single pound."

Tomoko wandered back over to the sofa with a paper plate carrying two slices of pizza and a can of soda. When she got close, she saw MJ had taken a seat there. This was her first time getting a good look at MJ. The sight of her caused Tomoko to freeze in place with her mouth slightly agape and her eyes wide open.

Mary Jane was drop dead gorgeous. With a beautiful face, striking green eyes, well kempt red hair, and a shapely body, she was nearly everything Tomoko wishes she was.

_"Holy crap! He's friends with her?! How could I possibly hope to compete with that bitch? I was delusional to think I even had a chance with someone as good looking as him. I'm doomed! Absolutely hopeless..."_ Tomoko thought to herself, still standing motionless.

Mary Jane waved at her, "Oh! Hey! You must be Peter's new roommate. I'm Mary Jane." She patted the seat next to her, "I assume you're staring because I stole your seat? Well, there's another right next to me."

Tomoko sat back down and quietly began to eat her pizza. Peter walked back over with both his and Mary Jane's plates of pizza. He handed MJ her plate while saying, "Your pizza, miss." All delivered with a big grin that was cheesier than the pizza and an overly mushy tone.

"Thanks!" Mary Jane replied with a smile.

Tomoko looked at them both with jealously. She had convinced herself that she had a shot with Peter, but now? Well, it was looking less and less likely overall. She slumped into her seat with quiet sigh.

_"I don't know why I thought someone like him would be interested in someone like me anyway."_

Mary Jane could see that something was wrong. She ribbed Tomoko, pointed up to her cap, and said, "Nice hat. What brand is it?"

Tomoko looked at her and shrugged, "I...uhhh, I don't know."

"Really? Fashion independent, I dig it." Mary Jane complimented.

"Th-thanks." Tomoko responded with a piece of pizza leaking out from her mouth. Peter had moved on to talking with Flash, but he actually caught a quick glimpse of this and snickered to himself over it.

Mary Jane continued the conversation, "You never told me your name, by the way."

"Kuroki Tomoko." Tomoko plainly said. She didn't seem to struggle speaking with Mary Jane as much as the others. Probably because she was pretty used to speaking with other women by this point, even if Mary Jane was from a different country.

Mary Jane nodded, "That's a nice name. If you don't mind me asking, what made you sign up for this foreign exchange program? I couldn't imagine signing up for one myself."

"I don't know." Tomoko said, again. This time, she said it in a confused tone.

"Just one of those choices you don't really think about until after you've done it, right?"

"Yeah."

Mary Jane sighed, "I know what that's like."

"Well," Tomoko began, "I actually guess I do know why I came here. I wanted to shake things up. Make things interesting. Life got boring back home."

Mary Jane snickered, "Well, if you wanted to make things interesting, it doesn't get much more interesting than New York. For better, or worse."

"I...I also wanted to meet a cute foreign guy." Tomoko admitted while nervously giggling.

Mary Jane cocked an eyebrow at that comment, "That so?" Then it sank in. The reason she was so upset earlier? Perhaps, Tomoko was interested in Peter? MJ wasn't sure how to take this realization. On one hand, MJ felt similarly, at least at one point. On the other, the relationship between her and Peter had fallen apart after Venom's appearance.

Indeed, while she might still be interested, the stress was too much to bear. At least so early on in their relationship. Who knows? If such a traumatic series of incidents happened later on, things could have been different between them.

"It's Peter, isn't it?" MJ bluntly asked.

The question caught Tomoko completely off guard. She nearly spat out her soda before she caught herself. She then swallowed it and it went down the wrong pipe. She was banging on her chest while coughing. After a few seconds she mostly recovered, albeit she was still wheezing.

"What would make you ask that?"

"I saw the way you were staring at us." MJ brought up, her smile fading. "Peter definitely has his charms, huh?"

"No." Tomoko replied with a smug smile. "He's a huge nerd, definitely not my type. I'm more into cool guys." She waved her hair in a dramatic fashion, as if that'd make her look even more confident.

"You mean, like Flash?" MJ jokingly asked, an amused smirk forming on her face.

Tomoko looked over at Flash, who was currently trying to stuff two whole slices of pizza in his mouth at once as Peter was laughing his butt off. After a few attempts, Flash somehow managed to stuff both down his gullet with ease. Peter handed him a $10 bill. It seemed like it was a bet.

However, Peter then grabbed THREE slices of pizza. Looked like he was going for a double or nothing bet. Tomoko leaned forward in her seat to get a closer look at what was happening. She was completely distracted from the conversation with MJ at this point. So was Mary Jane herself, really. They were just watching Peter try to shove three pieces of pizza in his mouth, all for the sake of $20.

Tomoko chuckled. "What else do you think he could fit in his mouth?" She asked with a blush and creepy grin on her face. She then realized she said that outloud and the grin dropped. The blush only increased, though

Mary Jane looked at her. With a look that was both slightly concerned but also pretty clearly amused. "I'd almost hate to find out."

In yet another moment of weakness, Tomoko disagreed, "I wouldn't." Again, she didn't realize she said this out loud.

"So much for not being into nerds, huh?" MJ sarcastically asked.

Tomoko's head sank into her shoulders as she fell back into her seat. "Well, uhhh, I was just kidding. Yeah, just kidding. Haha!"

"Suuuuuuuure." Mary Jane said, entirely unconvinced. While she still had feelings for Peter, MJ had to accept that she broke up with him and that someone else could take her place. Now, would it be Tomoko? It was certainly possible. MJ could gleam from their conversation that Tomoko was a real oddball. Yet, a surprisingly charming oddball.

Meanwhile, Peter was STILL trying to get those three pizza slices in his mouth.

Flash chortled, "C'mon, Parker! Just accept you can't do it! I won't think any less of your for it!"

Peter tried spitting something out but it was hard to speak comprehensibly with three slices of pizza blocking your mouth. It was just muffled nonsense.

It took Aunt May to finally intervene, "Peter! You stop that right now! You've got to save room for the cookies I brought over."

Peter said...something. Again, it's not easy to speak with your mouth full like that.

Surprisingly, Aunt May actually understood him, "Now, now! If you need $20 that bad, I'll just give it to you. Also, it's very impolite to speak with your mouth full."

Peter finally gave up, spitting the three slices back onto his plate. "Aww, but Aunt May! I don't need $20! You don't gotta do that for me!"

"Then why were you doing that?"

Peter wavered his hand as he struggled to explain, "Well, uhhhhh, you see...I guess it was just to prove a point?"

Aunt May shook her head, disappointed, "Whatever the point is, it isn't worth making a fool of yourself over for it."

Peter slouched over, his head hanging low. "Sorry, Aunt May." As he said that, he thought, _"Boy! Wonder how she'd feel if she knew I was making a fool of myself on the daily to sell pics to ol' flattop at the Bugle?"_

Aunt May stood up from her chair and picked up the plastic container on the coffee table. She opened it, and the fresh smell of delicious chocolate chips instantly radiated out from within it.

Peter excitedly rubbed his hands together upon seeing the cookies. Aunt May's cookies were second only to Aunt May's delicious wheatcakes.

Aunt May handed out a cookie to each of the guests at the party. The cookies were a surprisingly big size, each were littered with dozens of little chunks of chocolaty goodness.

Tomoko bit into her cookie and it was like a small piece of heaven when she did. She took another bite and another and then another and then another. Within an instant, the cookie was gone.

_"I didn't think cookies could be so good."_ Tomoko thought to herself. _"It's completely inhuman, really. Like, it shouldn't be humanly possible. Maybe she also has spider-powers like him? Like, it was inherited or something. I don't know what that has to do with making cookies but surely, if you had spider powers you'd be better at cooking than the average human in some way."_

After the treats, the get together lasted for about another hour. After an hour passed, Aunt May left to head home. Minutes after that, Flash left. Finally, Mary Jane left a few minutes after that. Peter and Tomoko were alone again.

Peter put away the wooden chairs, grabbed a pre-chewed slice of cold pizza, and sat down to relax. He looked over to Tomoko, "So...what did you think?"

"O-of your f-friends? Th-they were f-fine." Tomoko plainly stated.

"They'll grow on you." Peter replied. "Trust me on that."

"Y-your a-aunt made some g-great coo-cookies, though." Tomoko complimented.

Peter smiled, thinking back on them. "I know. I always wish she made more. I guess it's a quality over quantity thing, though."

Tomoko considered asking more about Mary Jane. What Peter's relationship with her was. But, she didn't. She was simply too nervous to ask about it.

Peter could sense that she wanted to know something. So, he asked, "What's the problem, lady? You seem tense."

Tomoko shook her head, "Huh? M-me? Tense? N-no! I-I'm n-not nervous."

"C'mon, you can be open with me about these things. We're roommates, after all. And, y'know what? We're also friends."

Tomoko sighed, knowing there was no way to avoid this one. "Th-that redhead and y-you..." Tomoko paused. She simply couldn't bring herself to continue that sentence. Instead, she changed the subject, "W-wait! No! You're talking a-about being open and stuff, b-but I know you h-have a s-secret you aren't b-being open w-with me a-about!"

Peter certainly wasn't expecting this kind of backlash. He tugged at his collar and said, "Well, ummm, secret? What secret? I think you should stop trying to change subjects!"

Inwardly, he thought, _"Well, she does have a point. Here I am going on about the importance of being honest while also keeping a red and blue spandex wearing skeleton in my closet."_

Tomoko squinted at him, before turning away completely.

Peter tried to reconcile, "I'm sorry, Tomoko. I just..."

"I don't want to hear it." She interrupted, scowling.

Peter rubbed his forehead, frustrated at her for not being more open with him but also annoyed at his own hypocrisy. What else could he do here? Try to push her further and only make her angrier? Try to explain the truth? Not seeing many other options, he stood up from his chair, shut out the lights, and went into his room. Maybe things would be better in the morning?

Tomoko sat in the dark, alone. Without much noise, she could hear that it was now raining outside. A flash of lightning briefly illuminated the room, before it all went to dark again. She shrugged and pulled out her phone to distract herself. Maybe she could text one of her friends if they were still up.

Frankly she didn't even feel like unfolding the bed, so she just fell flat onto the sofa instead.

As she looked for ways to distract herself, a shadowy figure loomed just outside. Watching her from the window. A toothy, sinister grin formed on the creature's distorted face. He had seen the entirety of their brief argument. The rising tension between them provided him much delight. Soon, it would be his time to strike.

"The timing is just too good." The figure excitedly whispered to himself as he tried to restrain his laughter. "Parker will soon be at our mercy. He will finally pay for ruining our lives." After this, the figure crawled up onto the roof. Lightning struck again and illuminated the sinister figure. Between the bold white spider logo, large white eyes, and tooth filled maw, it was clear that Venom had arrived.


	6. Showdown! Spider-Man vs Venom!

Three hours had passed. It was now midnight. The storm outside was only getting more intense with every passing minute. Tomoko couldn't go to sleep. Not for lack of trying, she laid there for like 30 minutes to try and sleep. Instead, she was back on her phone. She had texted some of her friends to see if any of them were active at the moment.

She got one reply back. It was from Yuri. She was hoping for a reply from Yuu or maybe Asuka, as they'd likely know what to do. Even Nemoto would have been preferable! However, they must've been busy at the moment. Tomoko cranked her neck forward in exhaustion. After all, there wasn't much that Yuri could really do to help her in this moment.

Yuri's text message simply just asked, "What?" Straight and to the point, as was typical of Yuri.

Tomoko thought on how to respond to that. She didn't even know why she texted Yuri in the first place. It all came down to simple desperation, really. A few minutes passed and Tomoko got another text message from Yuri.

"What is it?" Yuri asked again. Tact was never one of her strongest points.

Tomoko simply sent back, "Never mind."

Less than a second later, a reply was sent, "Okay."

Well, that was utterly pointless. Tomoko slammed back into the cushion as she thought of what else she could do. Sleep still wasn't an option. That's when she remembered! She reached into her backpack and pulled out a small, handheld book. A light novel. Volume 1 of Slayers, to be specific.

Tomoko had heard about this series, and even watched like...two episodes of the anime on TV at one point. Since nothing new on the horizon seemed to appeal to her, Tomoko thought to go back to something that was before her time, something different.

Just before Tomoko began to read, she felt something in her pocket. She reached into it and pulled out that picture of a young Peter Parker that Aunt May handed her. Tomoko slapped her own face upon seeing this.

_"I forgot to give this back! Now she's probably gonna think I'm some kind of creep who stole a picture of her nephew!"_

Well, now that Tomoko still had it, she decided to take a closer look at the picture. Upon second glance, something about it resonated with her. The look on Peter's face was one of a loner, she was quick to recognize it since she once had that very same look in her eyes. The dour and disdained expression was a quick giveaway.

To think that this high school kid was the same guy she was currently roomed up with. This made her reflect back on the progress she had made since she first entered high school and then went to college. It was a gradual change, but Tomoko slowly found herself surrounded by friends by the time of her second year of high school.

Yet that was NOTHING compared to the progress Peter had apparently made in that same time. He went from this nebbish, bitter looking nerd to a genuinely very attractive and upbeat boy, who also seemed quite popular. She was starting to get a little jealous of him.

 _"Some people have all the luck."_ She thought to herself as she placed the picture on the coffee table.

At this point, she didn't feel like reading. So she put the book away and just took out a game system. What better way to relieve stress than by playing an otome game? However, with someone just in the other room, Tomoko knew to play with her headphones on.

After making sure she had them plugged into the right port all the way, she began to play. It was a quick and easy way to escape the current situation. However, harshness of reality always finds a way to pull her back out.

Tomoko laid down on the sofa and started to relax. Some odd minutes into playing the game, she felt a cold breeze in the room. As if...the window were open? That's weird, she could have sworn the window was not only shut, but completely locked. Before she could even get up to investigate, she felt something's breath on her.

She slowly looked up from her game and what she saw wasn't pretty. Standing above her was a freakish monster wih slick, black skin. This was contrasted by the bright white of the spider on his chest, big eyes, and massive, sharp teeth. Tomoko gulped and quickly turned her attention back to the game. Maybe he didn't see her take notice of him?

Venom reached down to her game console and unplugged the headphones. For a quick second, the sound of moaning shot out from it before Tomoko put the system into sleep mode to shut it up. After that, she dove onto the floor and tried crawling away towards Peter's door. Venom slowly strode towards her as he quietly chuckled. It was quite clear he was enjoying this.

Reaching around, she tried to find something to throw at him. The only thing she found was the TV remote, which she tossed right at his head. The controller bounced right off of his head in a comical fashion. Venom froze in place as his vicious smile faded to a mildly confused blank stare. With that option clearly having not worked, there was only one thing she could try.

Tomoko screamed for dear life as she tried to get back up.

"That's what we needed." Venom said with a deep, booming voice that had an odd sort of reverb to it. He shot a strand of a stickly black substance out at her and reeled her in. He slung her over his shoulder as he sprayed a message on the wall with more black goop for Peter to see. Not only that, but he also switched the lights back on just so his message would be extra clear. After all that was done, he jumped out the window with Tomoko still in his grasp.

The screams caused Peter to shoot up from his bed with his eye bulging out. He leapt out from the bed and opened the door in quick succession. He was unsure what could have happened for only a split second. Any doubt in his mind of what was going on was quickly erased when he saw what was written on the wall.

**"MEET US IN THE PARK"**

Peter growled under his breath, "Venom." He balled one of his hands into fists and nearly punched the wall. He stopped himself just centimeters short of slamming his fist straight through the wall. Once again, Venom had invaded his personal life. Just as he had gotten accustomed to getting a new roommate and maybe continuing on with his regular life.

Unfortunately, he wouldn't be allowed to have that. At least, not yet. Venom is the only villain alive who personally knows that Peter is Spider-Man. If Spider-Man could somehow get him to lay off? Would such a thing be possible? Peter did like to believe that redemption was possible for even the worst of us, but Eddie was so completely consumed by his obsession. So driven by his irrational hatred and lust for revenge. He seemed unreasonable.

If he wouldn't turn, then Spider-Man could just...

No. No, Spider-Man couldn't. As much as Peter Parker might want to end his misery the easy way, it wouldn't be right. Especially since he already felt what it was like to nearly kill another man not so long ago. While it might seem like a satisfying answer, it was anything but. It'd just leave him unfulfilled, empty, and feeling quite guilty to boot.

He didn't have long to ponder on his feelings, though. Out there, Venom was waiting for him. With an innocent person he dragged into this mess in his grip. Peter had to hurry, who knows WHAT Venom might do to her?

Venom was swinging throughout the city, heading towards central part now. The foggy and stormy weather managed to cloak him from most peering eyes that just so happened to look up. The most any hapless person who just so happened to look up might have seen was a black, vaguely human blur swinging throughout New York's skyline. Just vague enough for it to have been any person who could traverse through the sky. Considering this city? That wasn't TOO unusual a sight.

By this point, Tomoko had stopped screaming. She had both thrown her voice out and just accepted that this happened. Well, perhaps 'accepted' wasn't the right term. It was more like she knew there wasn't much she could do in this situation. In a weird way, she had always fantasized about this scenario. To be wanted so desperately. To say that the reality didn't live up to the fantasy was an understatement.

Tomoko wasn't enamored by this monster, she was terrified. Terrified of what he might do, terrified of what he wanted from her. It didn't matter that he was a freakish beast. He could have been the most handsome man she had ever seen and she'd STILL be freaking out. She was so overwhelmed in the moment and it was so dark in the room, she didn't see the message he wrote on the wall. So where he was taking her was also a complete mystery.

"Enjoying the ride?!" Venom asked. It was unclear whether he was being sarcastic or serious when he said that.

Tomoko couldn't respond, even if she wanted to. What could she say? Words were meaningless. As the cold rain ran down her body, she shivered in response. At least, it felt like it was the rain causing this reaction. Perhaps this was really a reaction to her being scared.

After what felt like forever, Venom finally landed back on the ground with a loud impact, leaving a shallow crater in his wake. Now Tomoko could finally see where he was taking her. Central Park, one of New York's greatest tourist attractions. Not that she was ever really interested in seeing the park in the first place, but it was still awful that this was going to be her first experience at such a landmark.

Venom lifted her off of his shoulder and then webbed her to a tree. He hunched over to look at her eye-level and said, "Now, we aren't going to hurt you. We would never dare to hurt an innocent person."

He stepped away from her with his arms folded behind his back. "You'll see, we're actually trying to help you." He continued, trying to rationalize his actions. Whether he was rationalizing this to her or himself is open to interpretation. "You've been caught in the spider's web. Tangled!" He raised his hand up with his finger in the air to emphasize his point.

"We are here to free you from the spider's trap, before he hurts you. We must apologize for kidnapping you. Truly." The tone of his voice was one of sincerity. As if he really meant that. He paused for moment. Almost as if he was reflecting on his actions. He turned back around to face her. "This is for your own good. As hard as it is to believe."

If Tomoko weren't so frightened, she'd be rolling her eyes at this. She couldn't believe he was giving some kind of deranged, half baked speech to her like some kind of anime villain.

 _"I don't even know what he's talking about."_ She thought to herself. _"I don't even know who he is! I feel like I'm missing something! Something about spiders? Did he just kidnap me to act as his personal therapist? He's just talking and talking and talking! Shut up! I'd almost rather he disembowel me at this point."_

Venom looked at his wrist, as if he was pretending to check his watch. He leaned against the tree while impatiently tapping his foot. "He's late. Might not even be coming at all. Perhaps we overestimated how much he cares for you?"

Tomoko finally snapped at him upon that remark, "Shut up!"

Venom backed away, "Must've struck a nerve there."

Finally, Spider-Man arrived on the scene by landing on the ground on all fours. He wordlessly stood up, his fists tightly clenched. He was all wound up, ready to fight.

"You didn't have to make this personal, Venom." Spidey said as he slowly marched towards his foe.

Venom laughed as he too started to make his approach, "Oh, but we did! You made it personal from the start! We're just paying back the favor."

The wallcrawler leapt up at Venom with his fist wound back. He swung his hand forward, aiming to hit Venom in the jaw. Venom grabbed Spidey's fist before the hit landed. He then slammed Parker onto the ground, laughing maniacally.

"What an embarrassing showing!" Venom mocked. He tried stomping on Spidey, but Spider-Man rolled out of the way. After that, he shot two strands of web at Venom's feet. He tried pulling back, but Venom wouldn't budge. He was immovable. Venom simply reached down and pulled Spidey towards him. Again, he tried stomping on Peter. Peter grabbed onto Eddie's foot and used every ounce of strength to push him off. After an intense, minute long struggle, Peter finally forced him off. Venom staggered backwards, leaving him open for a brief interval.

He jumped back onto his feet and ran towards Venom. Taking advantage of the opening, Peter threw dozens upon dozens of punches and kicks at his black-clad foe. He was giving it his all. Without any place he could reasonably find a loud sound, all he could think to do was apply brute strength. Even using fire was out of the picture, seeing as how it was raining. Even if he could light a fire, it could spread all throughout Central Park. The last thing he'd want to do was raze a beloved city landmark. Making matters even worse the low tree line meant that Spidey couldn't even take advantage of his web swinging. Venom was clever in choosing the battlefield here.

Still, it didn't matter. His relentless onslaught was enough to send Venom to the ground. Venom backed away while rubbing his head.

Spider-Man took this chance to rant at his foe, "Think, Venom! If I wanted to make it personal, don't you think I would have done what you're doing now?! I have all these powers and I simply use them to gaslight you and take away your job? That's insane! Think about how many hoops I'd have to go through! If I really wanted to let you know I didn't like you, I would have gone about it more directly. You even have all of my memories, all thanks to that suit! If you just thought rather than letting petty revenge cloud your mind, maybe you would have realized that!"

Venom slammed his fist into the dirt, merely growling rather than actually responding with words. He heard everything Peter said, but he wasn't actually listening. "Shut up!" Venom yelled, his voice warbling in an even more distorted fashion than usual. It was as if it were growing deeper. "Even if you didn't mean to do it, that doesn't justify you selfishly using your powers to give yourself a distinct advantage over everyone else at the Bugle! Whether intentionally or not, you ruined our life! And seeing into your memories, our life isn't the only one you've ruined! What about Harry Osborn? You killed his father and then nearly killed him. All of your friends? Your family? All of the ones you drag into this? Even her?"

Venom then pointed over to Tomoko. She was shocked to be called upon like this. At this point, she felt like the two of them had forgotten about her. It was hard for her to keep track of what was going on. She still wasn't sure who this Venom guy was at all, but it was becoming increasingly clear that Spider-Man was indeed Peter. Normally, Spidey's voice was not only muffled but he actively tried to slightly deepen it and change his tone of speaking. However, the more emotional he got, the more he let his natural voice slip.

"I had nothing to do with her being dragged into this. I was trying to keep her out of it!" Peter growled. "As for Harry? Your suit was the thing that nearly made me kill him! Not to mention, you should know I wasn't responsible for Norman's death!"

Venom stood back up, cracking his knuckles and rotating his neck. "Time to finish this, little Spider."

Suddenly, Venom's muscle mass began to grow exponentially. His build went from having a large but fairly reasonable frame to being as wide as a truck with big, monstrous hands that were sharpened with deadly claws. He screamed as his jaw lowered down to an unnatural, unhinged state. A long, dragon-like tongue rolled out from his mouth as green bile spat out from his mouth in all directions.

Peter could only watch in terror as his vicious foe transformed right in front of him. Venom already had a good couple inches on him, but now he had to be AT LEAST a foot and a half taller than Peter. Probably even taller! Tendrils lashed out from all over as he hunched over, roaring.

Peter's first instinct was to run as this behemoth slowly trudged towards him. Each foot step rattled the ground, like a small earthquake.

Meanwhile, Tomoko was completely awe struck by his tongue. Her dirty mind couldn't help but think, _"I wonder what he could do with that thing?"_ However, her lewd thoughts ceased when she realized the gravity of this situation.

Peter took one step backwards, still desperately wanting to run. However, after taking one glance at Tomoko, he realized he had to stay and fighter. He took a deep breath, recomposing himself. If he fought smart, he might be able to defeat Venom yet.

Venom took one swipe. He was still a considerable distance away, but his massive tree trunk of an arm allowed for great range. Peter flipped backwards to avoid the attack. He was thankfully successful. Venom roared in anger as he started charging at Peter on all fours. Despite his massive size, he was deceptively fast.

Peter front flipped over him and shot two web balls down at his feet. He was hoping that this might stop Venom for even a second. It didn't work, Venom simply tore through thick globs of web like it was made of wet paper. He turned back around, bellowing. He didn't even sound remotely human at this point. Peter tried to think what he could do, but time wasn't on his side.

Venom lunged at Peter and tackled him on the ground. He violently slashed at Peter twice. Each swipe left deep scratches. The pain was excruciating, but he had to power through. He slid out from under Venom, using the slick rain soaked ground to his advantage. Then he started running. There had to be something he could do, ANYTHING. Then, he remembered. He heard the sound of thunder growing closer. If he could just find something that could conduct lightning...

That's when he saw a metal flagpole sticking out from the ground not too far away. With Venom not too far behind him, Spidey changed his direction to head towards the rod. Venom followed after, not realizing what he was doing.

Tomoko was still tied to the tree, just watching the battle from afar. They had gotten so far away and it was still so dark out, she was having trouble seeing what was going on at this point. She had to squint to even see what was going on. It wasn't the most flattering image to see Spider-Man running for his life, especially since this was technically the second time she had seen it.

It was by this point that she also realized that Venom kidnapped her as simple bait. Even if she still knew almost NOTHING about him, that much was clear at least. For all his talk about doing this for her 'own good' or whatever, it was clear he didn't actually care about her. This realization was pretty disheartening. It's one thing to be kidnapped when you're wanted, but to be kidnapped as simple bait? It certainly made a bad situation worse.

Still, it wasn't all bad. Seeing Peter fight so hard to protect her was uplifting. Even if he was getting utterly thrashed out there.

Back in the fight, Spider-Man had reached the pole. It seemed that the thunder was getting louder with every passing second. Hopefully, lightning would hit the flagpole soon and the resounding thunder would be enough to deter the Symbiote.

However, Venom could see right through what Peter was planning. He tore the metal rod out from the ground and tossed it away like it was weightless. Peter was so flabbergasted by what had happened, he froze. Venom grabbed him and threw him all the way back to the tree Tomoko was stuck to.

He slammed against it with such force, it genuinely felt like the tree was about to fall over. Tomoko looked down at him with a worried look on her face. He was in critical condition. His costume was shredded to tatters and he was covered in all kinds of wounds. Despite this all, he got back up. She could hear him grunt in pain as he did, though. Venom was quickly approaching and there wasn't much time. It seemed like that was a running theme this night.

Using what remained of his strength, he tore the web holding Tomoko to the tree off as he collapsed back onto the dirt. He gave her one simple instruction in an agonized, raspy voice. "Run..."

Venom leapt in, hunched over and with his arms splayed out. It looked like he was ready to strike the final blow, but was given pause when he saw Tomoko kneeling down on the ground. Now that she was free, she was able to fully process the situation. Rather than run, she fell on her knees and tears ran down her face.

Venom tilted his head at this sight. He looked at his own hands as he realized what this obsession had brought him to. Peter was right. He did drag an innocent girl into a situation that didn't involve her and probably left her scarred for a long time because of it.

"We're the monster...?" He muttered to himself as he shrank back down. Peter stood up using the tree as a support, with his arms wrapped around his abdomen in pain. Venom turned to Peter as the monstrous visage Venom peeled back, revealing the human face of Eddie Brock beneath. He had a solemn expression on his face.

Tomoko looked back up just in time to see this. "Eyebrows Guy?!" She shouted in shock. She didn't dedicate Eddie's name to memory at all. This revelation was enough to at least temporarily distract from the trauma of this entire event.

Peter actually softly chuckled at her calling him that. Some much needed levity. Eddie's hand hovered around Peter's shoulder, almost as if he was going to place it on there. However, he hesitated and retracted it as he said, "I...we...we're sorry for what we've done."

"Sorry doesn't make up for what you did, what you tried to do." Peter coldly responded as he glared at him.

Eddie nodded, "We know it doesn't. But don't blame this on my other. It was just rejected. Rejected from somebody it thought it could take comfort in. I took advantage of that. It also took advantage of me. We fed our negative emotions to each other. Took part in a cycle of toxicity until we became...that monstrosity."

"Your other...?"

"The Symbiote." Brock clarified. "It just wishes you were more upfront with it, rather than choosing to drive it away."

Peter sighed, "Yeah, maybe I could have handled that situation better. But I was scared, okay? I didn't know that thing was even alive at first. Finding that out was enough to freak me out, but then realizing it was controlling me as I slept and then trying to intensify my emotions? I wasn't thinking rationally."

"I know what that's like." Eddie lamented as he began to walk away.

Peter called out to him, "Hey! Get back here! Where are you going?"

"Wherever we're needed. We're going to make up for what we've done." Eddie simply responded as the Venom Symbiote overtook him again and he swung off into the night.

Peter tried to chase after him, but he collapsed on the ground in sheer exhaustion. Rather than give chase, he crawled back over to the tree and sat down next Tomoko, who was simply staring blankly into the night sky. At least the rain had lightened up to just be a light drizzle.

Spider-Man huddled up close to her, which took her by surprise.

"Just give me a minute." He said, deepening his voice. "I'll take you back to Peter Parker's apartment after I recover."

Tomoko glared at him, frowning in an annoyed fashion. _"Does he really think I'm that stupid?! I heard Eyesbrows Guy call him Parker! Not to mention, that mask barely hides anything at this point! How little does he think of me?"_

Peter gulped as he saw her scowl at him. He tugged at an invisible collar and said, "Alright, alright. You got me. No more hiding it. I'm Peter Parker."

"As if I couldn't figure it out." She muttered to herself. She kept up her defensive barrier, but that began to crumble when Peter wrapped his arm around her shoulders and nuzzled up against her.

Tomoko's face turned a bright shade of red, almost more vibrant than the red of Spider-Man's costume. She tried squirming out of it, but eventually relented. She broke down into tears again and was reduced to a babbling, sniveling mess as she buried her face in his lap.

Peter didn't say a word. He just patted her head in a reassuring manner.

Tomoko looked up at him with snot dribbling from her nose, tears still bubbling out from her eyes, and her hair completely frazzled.

"I...I must look so p-pathetic, huh?" She said while shaking like mad.

Peter shook his head, "Considering what you just went through? Not at all. I am so sorry to have dragged you into this. I shouldn't have accepted you as my roommate. It was irresponsible, knowing what my life brings."

Tomoko reached her hand up towards his face and touched it. It was meant to be romantic, but it just came across as weird. Still, Peter could get what she was attempting to do. Not to mention, he'd be a real jerk if he said anything about it.

"N-no." Tomoko sputtered out. She tried to find the words she wanted to say. After some seconds of some mindlessly muttering to herself, she then said, "Nobody deserves to b-be alone." Tomoko knew that, as a loner for her first year of high school, being alone was such an awful feeling.

Peter smiled at this sentiment. It was poignant coming from her. "We have a lot to talk about." He admitted. "Now that the secret's out of the bag, and all. I'll save that for later, though. Maybe after a quick nap. How about I take you back to my place for now?"

Tomoko merely nodded to the idea.

After a deep breath in, he stood back up. Thank goodness for his accelerated healing. He was still suffering quite a bit of pain, but much less than he was before. He even had enough strength to pick Tomoko up and carry her. Not that she was at all heavy, but when in such a pained state it made even the easiest things a struggle.

Tomoko swooned in his arms. Even more so when he swung away, still carrying her. This time in just one arm. Contrasting her frightened feelings from being carried by Venom, she felt liberated in his grasp. Flying above the city could have felt scary, but considering everything he had just done for her earlier? Tomoko knew she was safe. After such a horrifying night, this was just what she needed.

It was just what Peter needed too. He forgot what it was like to swing around the city with another person. The weather was still fairly dreary, but that didn't matter. Still, in the back of his mind, he couldn't help but think about Venom. He said he was turning over a new leaf, but could he be trusted? Peter didn't know. Still, at least in this moment, it didn't matter.

All that mattered was that things were finally going right between him and Tomoko. There was going to be much less tension between them now that he could be open about being Spider-Man. He still would have preferred if he could have kept it a secret, but maybe this wasn't a bad thing. Only time will tell on that front.


	7. Bonus: Supplementary Material

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Supplementary material for SpideyMote

Alright, here's some bonus content for this story. Profiles for certain characters, based on the profiles from the Volume 18 special edition booklet of Watamote. This chapter will be updated frequently with new profiles, so be sure to check it often! It won't be updated with every chapter, though.


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